s—^ 


I  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY. 

*  Princeton,  N-  J- 

*  . 

*  From  the  PUBLISHER 


BX  9178  :H36  T45  1847 
Hamilton,  James,  1814-186/ 
Thankfulness 


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THANKFULNESS; 


OTHER    ESSAYS. 


BY 

REV.   JAMES'KAMILTON, 

AUTHOR   OF   "  LIFE    IN   EARNEST,"   "  HARP   ON   THE  WILLOWS, 
"MOUNT   OF   OLIVES,"   ETC. 


NEW    YORK: 
ROBERT  CARTER,  58  CANAL  STREET. 

PITTSBURG  :  56  MARKET  STREET. 
1847. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Thankfulness 5 

To  those  throughout  the  World  who  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  in  Sincerity  :  An  Address  on  behalf 
of  the  proposed  Evangelical  Alliance 48 

Recollections  of  the  Rev.  R.  M.  M'Cheyne 86 

The  Blessings  of  the  Gospel :  A  Lecture  intro- 
ductory to  a  Course  of  Pastoral  Theology,  de- 
livered in  the  English  Presbyterian  College, 
November  12,  1844 108 

Parables  illustrative  of  Scripture  Doctrine 123 

The  Pilgrims  and  their  Pitcher. — The  Mount- 
ain in  the  Plain. — The  King's  Banquet. — The 
Plant  of  Renown. 


THANKFULNESS. 


"  Ten  thousand  thousand  precious  gifts 
My  daily  thanks  employ  ; 
Nor  is  the  least  a  cheerful  heart, 
That  tastes  those  gifts  with  joy." 

A  THANKFUL  Christian  is  a  happy  man, 
and  brings  pecuhar  glory  to  God.  Thank- 
fulness is  something  better  than  mere  cheer- 
fulness. It  is  a  pleasant  sight  to  see  a 
merry,  gleesome  child,  or  a  placid,  con- 
tented man  ;  but  pleasant  as  it  is  to  see,  it 
scarcely  needs  a  soul  to  make  a  creature 
cheerful.  You  may  see  cheerful  sights  by 
cottage-fires  and  on  village-greens,  on  the 
harvest-field  and  amid  the  vintage-heaps  ; 
but  you  may  see  the  exact  equivalent  as  of- 
ten as  you  look  on  a  bright  summer's  day 
at  a  flock  of  sheep,  or  a  dancing  minnow- 
pool,  or  a  cloud  of  insects  swinging  maziiy 
to  and  fro  in  a  field  of  balmy  air.  If  you 
1* 


THANKFULNESS. 


reckon  the  mere  gladness,  the  sensation  of 
delight,  beasts  are  as  capable  of  it  as  our- 
selves ;  and,  for  anything  I  know,  the  swift 
shrieking  out  his  ecstasy  as  he  glances 
round  the  steeple,  or  the  bee  murmuring 
all  his  noontide  musings  into  the  ear  of  an 
opening  flower  may  be  as  full  of  gladness 
as  you  ever  were  when  your  pulse  was 
bounding  bravely,  and  the  joy  of  felt  exist- 
ence was  swelling  every  vein.  I  believe 
that  God  can  fill  the  tiniest  and  most  tran- 
sient thing  as  full  of  its  proper  happiness  as 
he  can  fill  the  heart  of  man  ;  for  he  can  fill 
it  brimful,  and  human  bosom  can  hold  no 
more.  What  advantage,  then,  has  man  in 
his  enjoyments  over  the  beasts  that  perish  ? 
Why  this :  his  best  joys  should  be  spiritu- 
al and  intellectual  —  a  domain  peculiar  to 
himself.  They  should  be  more  lasting,  al- 
so ;  a  tinge  of  immortality  should  run 
through  them  ;  and  as  they  are  sublimer  and 
more  enduring,  so  they  should  awaken 
gratitude.  Our  gladness  should  take  the 
form    of  thankfulness.       Gratitude  is   the 


THANKFULNESS. 


grace  which  hallows  gladness,  and  by  giving 
it  an  upward  Godward  direction,  makes  it 
both  noble  and  safe.  A  joy  in  which  grat- 
itude does  not  mingle  is  a  dangerous  thing, 
for  it  is  atheistic  and  God-provoking.* 
And  it  is  a  degraded  thing  ;  for  nature's 
high-priest,  that  spokesman  and  interpreter 
who  should  embody  in  articulate  praise  the 
homage  of  a  voiceless  universe,  and  whose 
adoring  capacity  is  only  lower  than  the  an- 
gels, ingratitude  makes  him  lower  than  the 
oxen  ;  for  the  ox  knoweth  his  owner,  and 
feels  his  own  kind  of  thankfulness  ;  —  and 
duller  than  the  stones ;  for  rocks  and 
mountains  have  their  silent  anthems,  and 
rather  than  that  none  should  utter  "  glory 
in  the  highest,"  the  stones  would  cry  aloud.t 
That  man  leads  the  most  angelic  life 
whose  life  is  fullest  of  adoration,  and  thank- 
fulness, and  praise  ;  but  none  except  the 
Lord's  redeemed  can  lead  that  life.  None 
will  cry,  *'  O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord, 
for  he  is  good,"  who  have  not  first  tasted 

*  Isa.  V.  12.         t  Ps.  cxlviii.  9  ;  Luke  xix.  37-40. 


8  THANKFULNESS. 

that  "  mercy  which  endureth  for  ever."* 
And  just  as  there  is  no  real  gratitude  which 
does  not  come  down  from  above,  so  there 
is  no  acceptable  thank-offering  which  does 
not  go  up  through  a  mediator.  "  Giving 
thanks  always  for  all  things  unto  God  and 
the  Father  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."t  "  Ye  also,  as  lively  stones,  are 
built  up  a  spiritual  house,  a  holy  priest- 
hood, to  offer  up  a  spiritual  sacrifice,  ac- 
ceptable to  God  by  Jesus  Christ."|  Christ 
is  the  altar  which  sanctifies  the  sinner's 
gift ;  and  in  order  that  a  thank-offering  be 
accepted,  it  must  be  laid  on  this  altar. 
Cain  thought  that  he  was  thankful.  He 
presented  to  the  Lord  the  produce  of  his 
fields ;  and  perhaps  it  was  more  than  a 
complimentary  acknowledgment.  Perhaps 
he  felt  a  gush  of  emotion  as  he  eyed  God's 
goodness  in  his  ripening  acres.  But  he 
thought  his  own  hands  pure  enough  to  con- 
vey the  tribute,  and  on  a  bloodless  altar  he 
laid  his  elegant  oblation.     Abel  was  thank- 

*  Ps.  cxxxvi.  1.        t  Eph.  V.  20.        1 1  Peter  ii.  5. 


THANKFULNESS.  9 

ful  also  ;  but  besides  the  fruit  of  the  ground, 
he  brought  the  firstling  of  his  flock,  and  with 
hands  washed  in  its  innocency,  presented 
his  more  excellent,  his  more  abundant  and 
acceptable  offering.  And  while  the  sacri- 
fice of  faith  received  the  fiery  sign  and  van- 
ished, fragrant  in  flames  of  Heaven's  own 
kindHng,  the  mellow  heap  of  corn  and  glos- 
sy fruit,  the  deist's  offering,  remained  un- 
noticed and  untouched.  "  The  Lord  had 
respect  unto  Abel  and  his  offering ;  but 
unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering  he  had  not 
respect."  That  offering  alone  arrests  the 
eye  of  God  which  is  laid  on  Abel's  altar. 

The  grand  ultimatum  of  the  Christian 
economy  is  just  to  evoke  abundant  thanks- 
givings. And  with  this  end  in  view,  it  has 
provided  at  once  the  mightiest  topic  and  the 
fittest  ministers  —  the  unspeakable  gift,  and 
the  royal  priesthood.  And  a  believer  is 
never  so  truly  what  his  Lord  would  have 
him  to  be,  nor  so  like  what  he  shall  hereaf- 
ter be  ;  he  never  brings  more  glory  to  God, 
nor  does  more  to  commend  the  gospel,  than 


10  THANKFULNESS. 

when  others  see  in  his  spirit  and  demeanor, 
in  what  he  gives,  and  what  he  says,  and 
what  he  does,  a  Kving  sacrifice,  a  holocaust 
of  praise.  "  In  everything  give  thanks  ;  for 
this  is  the  will  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  con- 
cerning you." 

In  the  hope  of  promoting  this  most  desi- 
rable grace,  I  would  mention  — 

I.  Some  hinderances  to  a  thankful  spirit. 

II.  Some  topics  or  materials  for  thanks- 
giving. 

III.  Some  appropriate  expressions  of 
Christian  gratitude. 

I.  Some  Christians  are  not  eminent  for 
thankfulness.  They  are  on  the  right  side  ; 
but  they  have  scarcely  got  the  right  spirit. 
Their  complainings  and  murmuring  are  a 
deep  spot  on  their  Christian  character,  or 
rather  a  thick  veil  over  it.  Their  heavenly 
citizenship  could  never  be  gathered  from 
their  benign  and  joyful  mien,  or  from  their 
cordial,  thankful  words  ;  for,  even  with  the 
cup  of  salvation  in  their  hand,  you  never 


THANKFULNESS.  11 

hear  them  asking,  *'  What  shall  I  render  to 
the  Lord  for  all  his  gifts?" 

Three  things  mainly  hinder  Christians 
from  being  thankful :  selfishness,  peevish- 
ness, and  heedlessness. 

Some  are  very  selfish.  Unless  the  bles- 
sing alight  on  their  actual  self,  it  matters  not 
where  it  comes  down.  It  can  occasion  no 
gladness  to  them.  They  can  not  joy  in  be- 
holding the  faith  of  other  men.  They  can 
not  exult  in  beholding  the  order  of  other 
churches.  They  do  not  glorify  God  for  the 
graces  of  their  believing  brethren.  The 
husbandman  who  sees  a  cloud  melting  over 
the  adjacent  fields,  while  not  a  drop  comes 
down  on  his  own  thirsty  furrows,  is  more 
likely  to  envy  his  favored  neighbor  than  to 
indulge  in  patriotic  congratulations ;  and  so 
when  a  blessing  comes  down  on  neighbor 
Christians  or  neighbor  churches,  there  are 
some  who,  instead  of  indulging  in  that  wise 
congratulation  which  of  all  things  would  be 
the  likeliest  to  bring  the  blessing  to  them- 
selves, instead  of  rejoicing  with  the  patriot- 


12  THANKFULNESS. 

ism  and  public  spirit  of  a  citizen  of  Zion, 
exulting  in  the  general  good,  they  grudge 
as  if  they  lost  what  other  members  of  the 
body  get ;  and  by  a  most  unlovely  selfish- 
ness, defraud  themselves  of  that  joy  which 
no  man  could  keep  from  them  —  the  joy  of 
rejoicing  with  them  that  do  rejoice  —  the 
joy  of  admiring  the  wonderful  work  of  God. 
There  are  some  so  grievously  selfish,  that 
they  take  as  matters  of  right,  or  as  things 
of  course,  every  good  and  perfect  gift  ;  and 
being  little  accustomed  to  view  all  things  in 
the  surety,  viewing  themselves  more  fre- 
quently from  the  little  hill  of  their  own  self- 
love  than  from  the  great  mountain  of  God's 
free  grace,  no  gift  is  so  great  as  to  surprise 
them,  no  mercy  is  so  amazing  as  to  make 
them  thankful.  Like  the  Caspian  sea, 
which  has  some  unseen  way  of  disposing 
of  its  waters,  so  that  whatever  rains  come 
down,  and  whatever  rivers  flow  in,  its  great 
gulf  never  fills,  and  never  a  rill  runs  out 
from  it  again  ;  so  there  is  a  greedy,  all-de- 
vouring selfishness,  which,  whatever  rivers 


THANKFULNESS.  13 

of  pleasure  flow  into  it,  and  whatever  migh- 
ty bursts  of  heaven-descended  bounty  ex- 
haust their  fulness  over  it,  always  contrives 
to  dispose  of  the  whole  in  the  caverns  and 
subterraneous  passages  of  its  capacious  ego- 
tism— the  vast  mare  internum  of  self,  with- 
out one  drop  overflowing  in  kindness  to 
man  or  gratitude  to  God.  And  if  the  sud- 
den advent  of  some  unhoped-for  or  over- 
whelming mercy  stagger  them  into  a  mo- 
ment's tenderness,  they  recover  their  pres- 
ence of  mind  before  they  are  betrayed  into 
the  liberality  of  imprudent  gratitude,  or  the 
vehement  expressions  of  an  over-ardent 
thankfulness. 

Others,  who  are  not  so  remarkable  for 
sordid  selfishness,  are  of  a  peevish,  com*- 
plaining  temper.  Unless  a  man  be  changed 
in  the  spirit  of  his  mind,  he  can  not  belong 
to  Christ.  It  is  the  work  of  the  transform- 
ing Spirit  to  change  the  temper  in  making 
all  things  new  ;  and  in  the  majority  of  in- 
stances the  change  is  very  perceptible  :  the 
churl  becomes  bountiful,  and  the  murmurer 
2 


14  THANKFULNESS. 

grows  thankful.  But  the  change  is  some- 
times very  slow,  and  seldom,  in  all  its  de- 
tails, complete.  And  it  is  sad  enough  that 
when  the  box  is  alabaster  and  the  ointment 
precious,  this  dead  fly  should  spoil  it  all  ; 
when  the  man  is  a  Christian,  and  his  quali- 
ties those  of  substantial  worth,  that  this  bad 
temper  should  diffuse  an  odor  of  repulsive- 
ness  around  him.  We  have,  however,  only 
to  do  with  the  fact  and  its  evil  influence  — 
the  fact  that  some  good  men  are  of  a  fretful 
temper,  and  its  evil  effect  in  making  them 
unthankful.  Just  as  there  are  some  instan- 
ces of  ingenious  gratitude,  making  the  most 
of  scanty  mercies,  and  extracting  materials 
of  thanksgiving  from  subjects  the  most  un- 
promising ;  so  there  is  an  ingenious  fretful- 
ness,  surprising  you  by  its  dexterity  in  de- 
tecting flaws,  its  industry  in  imbittering  its 
own  comforts,  and  wearying  you  by  its  per- 
tinacious fault-finding.  If  the  house  be 
commodious  and  well  furnished,  the  situa- 
tion is  bad.  If  your  friend  be  judicious, 
and  affable,  and  kind,  it  availeth  you  noth- 


THANKFULNESS.  15 

ing,  for  he  is  so  busy  that  you  do  not  see 
him  half  so  often  as  you  would.  If  the 
book  be  scriptural  and  original,  and  ever  so 
impressive,  you  throw  it  aside  with  a  slnid- 
der,  because  it  contains  some  expression 
at  war  with  your  rules  of  criticism.  In  the 
first  book  of  Kings,  we  read  (ix.  10-13): 
"And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  twenty 
years,  when  Solomon  had  built  the  two 
houses,  the  house  of  the  Lord  and  the 
king's  house,  that  then  King  Solomon  gave 
Hiram  twenty  cities  in  the  land  of  Galilee. 
And  Hiram  came  out  from  Tyre  to  see  the 
cities  which  Solomon  had  given  him ;  and 
they  pleased  him  not.  And  he  said.  What 
cities  are  these  which  thou  hast  given  me, 
my  brother?  And  he  called  them  the  land 
of  Cabul  [margin,  dii-ty,  or  displeasing]  un- 
to this  day."  Now,  without  waiting  to  in- 
quire whether  the  conduct  of  Solomon  on 
this  occasion  was  right  or  wrong,  handsome 
or  unhandsome,  we  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that  Hiram  was  neither  gracious  nor 
wise.     Even  had  the  cities  not  come  up  to 


16  THANKFULNESS. 

his  expectation  —  and  perhaps  the  misfor- 
tune lay  in  his  expectation  being  too  high  — 
there  was  no  need  to  vihfy  them,  and  hand 
down  to  posterity  a  memorial  of  his  own 
spleen.  But  some  men's  lot  is  always  cast 
in  the  land  of  Cabul.  There  is  something 
dirty  or  displeasing  in  all  their  mercies. 
They  find  a  crook  in  every  field,  a  draw- 
back on  every  comfort,  a  bitter  in  every 
sweet.  They  can  get  nothing  to  their  mind, 
nothing  that  comes  up  to  their  idea,  neither 
a  church,  nor  a  minister,  nor  a  Christian 
friend.  And  just  as  they  are  sullen  and 
dissatisfied  in  the  midst  of  ordinances,  they 
are  fretful  at  their  own  firesides.  And  just 
as  God  never  gave  them  a  mercy  yet  where 
their  perversity  did  not  discover  more  cause 
for  grumbling  than  for  gratitude,  so,  were 
they  entering  heaven  itself  with  this  hanker- 
ing, discontented  spirit,  they  would  write 
Cabul  on  the  very  gates  of  paradise. 

Many  are  unthankful  from  sheer  inadver- 
tency. They  are  surrounded  with  bles- 
sings, but,  from  pure  heedlessness,  they  do 


THANKFULNESS.  17 

not  perceive  the  open  hand  whence  all  have 
issued.  The}^  shut  themselves  out  of  the 
rich  enjoyments  included  in  the  very  exer- 
cise of  gratitude,  by  not  observing  the 
countless  objects  on  which  that  gratitude 
might  be  exercised.  They  are  neither 
proud  nor  perverse  it  may  be,  but  of  a  light 
inconsiderate  turn,  enjoying  the  good  things 
which  God  has  given,  happy  and  cheerful 
in  the  use  of  them,  but  not  connecting  them 
with  the  bounteous  Giver,  and  so  not  thank- 
ful. Gratitude  does  not  depend  on  the 
amount  of  mercies  received,  but  on  the 
amount  of  mercies  known  and  prized.  And 
some  are  incomparably  more  quicksighted 
in  discerning,  and  ingenious  in  detecting, 
mercies  than  others  are.  A  man  may  pos- 
sess an  estate  and  be  litde  alive  to  its  in- 
trinsic worth.  From  ignorance  or  incurios- 
ity he  may  look  on  it  as  good  for  nothing, 
till  a  stranger  comes  and  reveals  to  him  its 
value.  *'  This  barren  shaly  rock  overlays 
a  bed  of  fuel.  That  poisonous  spring, 
of  which  the  cattle  may  not  drink,  is  itself 
2* 


18  THANKFULNESS. 

a  promise  of  plenty,  for  it  shows  that  out 
of  these  hills  thou  mayest  dig  brass.  These 
coarse  unsightly  shells  are  the  casket  which 
contains  the  pearl.  And  even  those  heaps 
of  rotting  seaweed  may  be  rendered  a  source 
of  occupation  to  your  people,  and  of  rich- 
es to  yourself."  And  many  a  man  has  the 
sources  of  boundless  happiness  and  grati- 
tude all  at  his  feet,  but  owing  to  mere  heed- 
lessness the  well  is  hid.  Many  a  man 
whose  average  enjoyment  amounts  to  little 
more  than  a  duller  sort  of  misery ;  many  a 
Christian  whose  thankfulness  is  a  conscien- 
tious effort  rather  than  a  spontaneous  emo- 
tion, his  peace  might  flow  like  a  river,  and 
his  praises  rush  in  a  mighty  stream,  if  he 
only  had  a  prompt  and  observant  eye,  if 
he  were  only  eager  to  discover  and  alert  to 
notice  his  multitude  of  mercies.  And  this 
brings  us  to  our  second  head  : — 

II.  Materials  for  thankfulness. 

There  is  no  better  plan  for  suggesting 
these  than  to  fix  our  regards  on  some  one 
who  was  eminent  for  the  grace  of  thankful- 


THANKFULNESS.  19 

ness,  and  then  to  ascertain  what  those  mer- 
cies were  which  made  his  thanks  abound. 
And  having  ascertained  them,  it  will  be  for 
each  to  consider  how  far  ttte  counterpart 
mercies  have  been  bestowed  on  himself. 
In  looking  over  the  Bible,  the  most  emi- 
nent example  of  a  thankful  spirit  which  oc- 
curs to  us  is  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel. 
His  was  a  heart  so  full,  that  the  least  mercy 
made  it  overflow  ;  and  when  it  overflowed, 
it  was  gratitude  of  a  peculiarly  intense  and 
generous  kind,  such  as  fills  the  golden  vi- 
als of  the  four-and-twenty  elders.*  There 
was  a  holy  skill,  a  Divine  exuberance,  in 
King  David's  gratitude.  Nothing  came 
amiss  to  it,  but,  like  the  fire  which  trans- 
mutes rotten  wood  and  dingy  coal  to  light 
and  flame,  the  fire  of  David's  devotion 
turned  his  hardships  into  blessings  and  his 
sorrows  into  songs  of  thanksgiving.  For 
instance,  when  he  had  taken  refuge  with 
the  king  of  Gath,  hungry  and  weary,  and 
hunted  for  his  life,  he  had  not  been  long  in 
*Ilev.  V.  8,  9. 


20  THANKFULNESS. 

his  house  till  he  found  that  the  king  intend- 
ed to  kill  him.  Saul  lay  waiting  for  him, 
and  Achish  drove  him  out  to  Saul.  So 
David  arose*  and  marched  along,  singing 
cheerfully,  *'  I  will  bless  the  Lord  at  all 
times  ;  his  praise  shall  continually  be  in  my 
mouth.  O  magnify  the  Lord  with  me,  and 
let  us  exalt  his  name  together."*  And 
long  afterward,  when  death  laid  his  hand 
upon  him,  and  the  once-ruddy  countenance 
was  deep-Hned  and  mortal  pale,  he  cast  a 
wistful  glance  round  his  dwelling,  and 
though  it  reminded  him  of  many  an  awful 
sin  and  many  stunning  events  in  his  fami- 
ly's history ;  amid  its  dreariness,  a  sense  of 
obligation  still  survived,  and  he  gathered 
up  his  languid  strength  to  say,  "  Although 
my  house  be  not  so  with  God,  yet  he  hath 
made  with  me  an  everlasting  covenant,  or- 
dered in  all  things  and  sure  ,*  for  this  is  all 
my  salvation,  and  all  my  desire,  although 
he  make  it  not  to  grow."  It  was  the  faint 
Amen  which  closed  the  hallelujah  of  his 

*  Psalm  xxxiv. 


THANKFULNESS.  21 

thankful  life,  and  told  that  he  was  of  the 
same  mind  still  as  when  in  sprightlier  days 
he  sang,  "  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd. 
Surely  goodness  and  mercy  shall  follow  me 
all  the  days  of  my  life."  So  far  there  is 
foundation  for  Isaac  Walton's  quaint  con- 
clusion, that,  "though  the  prophet  David 
was  guilty  of  many  of  the  most  deadly  sins, 
yet  he  was  said  to  be  a  man  after  God's 
own  heart,  because  he  abounded  more  with 
thankfulness  than  any  other  that  is  men- 
tioned in  Holy  Scripture,  as  may  appear 
in  his  Book  of  Psalms;  where  there  is  such 
a  commixture  of  his  confessing  of  his  sins 
and  unworthiness,  and  such  thankfulness, 
for  God's  pardon  and  mercies,  as  did  make 
him  to  be  accounted,  even  by  God  himself, 
to  be  a  man  after  his  own  heart."* 

*  "  The  Angler,"  b.  i.,  ch.  xxi.  Perhaps  it  owes  some- 
what of  its  charm  to  the  friend  with  whom  I  always  asso- 
ciate it,  as  having  first  called  my  attention  to  it  ;  but  that 
chapter  of  the  "  Complete  Angler,"  seems  to  me  a  well- 
spring  of  as  healthy  and  thankful  emotion  as  any  passage 
in  our  English  authorship.     It  begins  to  this  effect : — 

"  Well,  scholar,  having  now  taught  you  to  paint  your  rod 
and  we  having  still  a  mile  to  Tottenham  High  Cross,  I 


22  THANKFULNESS. 

What,  then,  were  the  things  which  chiefly 
awakened  David's  gratitude?  To  enume- 
rate all  would  be  to  recapitulate  the  psalms 

will,  as  we  walk  toward  it,  in  the  cool  shade  of  this  sweet 
honeysuckle  hedge,  mention  to  you  some  of  the  thoughts 
and  joys  that  have  possessed  my  soul  since  we  two  met  to- 
gether. And  these  thoughts  shall  be  told  you,  that  you 
may  join  me  in  thankfulness  to  the  Giver  of  every  good  and 
perfect  gift  for  our  happiness. 

"  And  that  our  present  happiness  may  appear  to  be  the 
greater,  and  we  the  more  thankful  for  it,  I  will  beg  you  to 
consider  with  me  how  many  do,  even  at  this  very  time,  lie 
under  the  torment  of  the  gout,  and  the  toothache,  &c. ;  and 
this  we  are  free  from.  And  every  misery  that  I  miss  is  a 
new  mercy  ;  and  therefore  let  us  be  thankful.  There  have 
been,  since  we  met,  others  that  have  met  disasters  of  bro- 
ken limbs,  some  have  been  blasted,  others  thunder-strick- 
en ;  and  we  have  been  freed  from  these,  and  all  those  ma- 
ny other  miseries  that  threaten  human  nature  ;  let  us, 
therefore,  rejoice  and  be  thankful.  Nay,  which  is  a  far 
greater  mercy,  we  are  free  from  the  insupportable  burden 
of  an  accusing,  tormenting  conscience — a  misery  that  none 
can  bear ;  and  therefore  let  us  praise  Him  for  his  prevent- 
ing grace,  and  say,  '  Every  misery  that  I  miss  is  a  new 
mercy.'  Nay,  let  me  tell  you,  there  be  many  that  have 
forty  times  our  estates,  that  would  give  the  greatest  part  of 
it  to  be  healthful  and  cheerful  like  us,  who,  with  the  ex- 
pense of  a  little  money,  have  eaten  and  drunk,  and  laugh- 
ed, and  angled,  and  sung,  and  slept  securely,  and  rose  next 
day,  and  cast  away  care,  and  sung,  and  laughed,  and 
angled  again  ;  which  are  blessings  rich  men  can  not  pur- 
chase with  all  their  money." 


THANKFULNESS.  23 

of  praise.  We  shall  only  specify  three  or 
four. 

1.  Personal  salvation. — There  is  a  joy 
which  many  here  have  felt  —  the  joy  of  re- 
turning health.  The  Lord  had  brought 
you  very  low,  so  low  that  nobody  expected 
you  would  rise  again,  and  you  did  not 
greatly  care.  You  were  so  sick  at  heart, 
that  life  had  no  attractions  for  you.  Your 
soul  abhorred  the  very  things  it  loved  be- 
fore. They  had  to  stop  the  music  in  the 
streets,  the  din  so  distressed  you.  Your 
little  sister  brought  you  a  few  flowers  from 
the  garden,  but  you  asked  her  to  put  them 
away,  for  their  fragrance  sickened  you. 
Some  one  offered  to  read  you  a  chapter, 
and  you  gave  a  lisdess  consent,  but  you 
could  not  attend  to  a  single  verse,  and  soon 
said,  "  That  will  do."  But  the  Lord  rais- 
ed you  up  again. 

Do  you  remember  the  first  time  you 
breathed  the  open  air,  when  you  were 
strong  enough  to  cross  the  threshold  again  ? 
It  was  quite  an  ordinary  day  to  other  peo- 


24  THANKFULNESS. 

pie.  The  shopman  stood  behind  his  counter, 
the  student  was  poring  on  his  book,  the 
smith  was  hammering  at  his  forge,  and  no- 
ticed nothing  remarkable  about  the  day. 
And  when  neighbors  met,  they  said  to  one 
another,  as  words  of  course,  "  A  pleasant 
day."  They  saw  nothing  extraordinary 
about  it — but  it  was  a  wonderful  day  to 
you.  You  just  felt  as  if  it  were  a  day  that 
God  had  newly  made — as  if  he  had  on 
purpose  breathed  a  new  freshness  into  the 
air,  and  scattered  on  the  earth  a  handful  of 
heaven's  own  sunshine.  The  commonest 
things  had  an  uncommon  look.  They  had 
a  friendly  look  —  a  happy  thankful  look. 
They  all  seemed  to  be  singing  the  148th 
psalm  :  *'  Fruitful  trees  and  all  cedars ; 
beasts  and  all  cattle  ;  creeping  things  and 
flying  fowl ;"  were  all  praising  God,  for 
you  yourself  were  praising.  And  as  you 
hearkened  to  the  merry  tune  of  the  evening 
bird,  and  the  piping  tones  of  the  bee  hur- 
rying home  with  his  last  burden,  and  the 
chorus-gush    of  winds    and  waters,  your 


THANKFULNESS.  25 

swelling  heart  kept  time  to  their  hosannah, 
and  your  tumult  of  ecstasy  almost  threw 
your  feeble  frame  into  a  fever  again. 

But  there  is  a  joy  more  Elysian  still,  and 
it,  too,  is  the  joy  of  returning  health  —  the 
joy  of  a  forgiven  sinner  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  first  seals  the  pardon  on  his  soul.  To 
some,  this  joy  comes  so  gradually,  and  with 
such  wise  abatements,  that  they  can  not 
date  its  dawn  nor  say  when  that  joy  was 
full.  But  others  can.  You  were  a  sin- 
sick  wretched  man.  The  Spirit  of  God, 
unperceived  by  you,  was  working  in  your 
heart  and  had  convinced  you  of  your  guilt. 
You  had  no  desire  for  anything;  you  had 
not  courage  to  pray ;  you  took  the  Bible 
in  your  hand,  but  had  scarcely  heart  to 
open  it ;  you  expected  nothing  there  ;  and 
you  wondered  why  other  people  were  so 
happy,  for,  in  your  desolate  bosom,  all  was 
dark  despair.  You  were  almost  afraid  to 
shut  your  eyes  and  take  your  needful  rest, 
for  you  did  not  know  but  you  might  awake 
in  hell ;  and  though  you  put  up  an  earnest 
3 


26  THANKFULNESS. 

cry  for  mercy,  you  felt  as  if  God  had  not 
heard  that  cry.  These  were  dismal  days. 
But  they  are  over  now.  The  true  light 
shone.  You  saw  a  sin-bearing  Saviour. 
You  saw  God's  reconciled  countenance  in 
the  face  of  the  incarnate  Son.  You  had 
peace  with  God. 

You  were  no  longer  averse  to  pray,  for 
God  was  your  Father.  You  were  no  longer 
reluctant  to  open  the  Bible,  for  that  Bible 
was  good  news  to  you.  You  were  no 
longer  terrified  to  sleep,  for  you  could 
sleep  in  Jesus.  Your  heart  was  so  full  of 
joy  because  you  felt  that  God  was  at  peace 
with  you,  that  you  felt  at  peace  with  every- 
thing, and  called  on  the  dumb  creatures  to 
help  you  to  praise  the  Lord.  Your  glad- 
ness found  outlet,  and  scarcely  found  it,  in 
crying,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul ;  and 
all  that  is  within  me,  bless  his  holy  name. 
Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  forget  not 
all  his  benefits  ;  who  forgiveth  all  thine  in- 
iquities ;  who  healeth  all  thy  diseases ;  who 
redeemeth  thy  life  from  destruction  ;  who 


THANKFULNESS.  27 

crowneth  thee  with  loving-kindness  and 
tender  mercies.  ...  As  far  as  the  east  is 
from  the  west,  so  far  hath  he  removed  our 
transgressions  from  us.  .  .  ,  .  Bless  the 
Lord,  all  his  works,  in  all  places  of  his  do- 
minions ;  bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul.'* 
These  were  David's  feehngs  when  he  felt 
himself  a  forgiven  sinner  —  feelings  which 
burst  in  on  him  again  in  all  their  freshness 
and  force  each  time  that  he  realized  the 
same  affecting  mercy  anew.*  Ah,  brother ! 
are  you  a  forgiven  sinner  ?  Are  you  ac- 
cepted in  the  Beloved  ?  And  has  your 
heart  not  danced  as  David's  did  ?  Has 
not  your  glory  waked,  and  your  soul  and 
all  that  is  within  you  been  stirred  up  to 
bless  his  holy  name  ? 

2.  The  Bible. — In  the  days  of  King 
David,  the  Bible  was  a  scanty  book ;  yet 
he  loved  it  well,  and  found  daily  wonders 
in  it.  Genesis,  with  its  sublime  narration 
of  how  God  made  the  worlds,  with  its 
glimpses  of  patriarchal  piety,  and  dark  dis- 

*  Psalm  xxxii. :  li.  15,  &c. 


28  THANKFULNESS. 

closures  of  gigantic  sin  ;  Exodus,  with  its 
glorious  marchings  through  that  great  wil- 
derness, its  thrilling  memorials  of  Jeho- 
vah's outstretched  arm,  and  the  volumes 
of  the  written  law ;  Leviticus,  through 
whose  flickering  vistas  David's  eye  dis- 
cerned the  shadows  of  better  things  to 
come;  Numbers,  with  its  natural  history 
of  the  heart  of  man  ;  and  Deuteronomy, 
with  its  vindication  of  the  ways  of  God ; 
Joshua  and  Judges,  with  their  chapters  of 
providence,  their  stirring  incidents  and 
peaceful  episodes  ;  the  memoirs  of  Job,  so 
fraught  with  spiritual  experience ;  and  the 
domestic  annals  of  Ruth,  which  told  to 
her  grandson  such  a  tale  of  Divine  fore- 
knowledge, and  love,  and  care,  all  conver- 
ging on  himself,  or  rather  on  David's  Son, 
and  David's  Lord  ; — these  were  David's 
Bible.  And,  brethren,  whatever  wealth 
you  have,  remember  that  David  desired  his 
Bible  beyond  all  his  riches.  So  thankful 
was  he  for  such  a  priceless  possession,  that 
he  praised  God  for  its  righteous  judgments 


THANKFULNESS.  29 

seven  times  a  day.  But  you  have  got  an 
ampler  Bible  —  a  Bible  with  Psalms  and 
Prophets  in  it  —  a  Bible  with  Gospels  and 
Epistles.  How  do  you  love  that  law? 
How  often  have  you  found  yourself  clasp- 
ing it  to  your  bosom  as  the  man  of  your 
counsel?  How  often  have  your  eyes  glis- 
tened over  a  brightening  page  as  one  who 
had  found  great  spoil?  How  often  have 
you  dwelt  on  its  precious  promises  till  they 
evolved  a  sweetness  which  made  you  mar- 
vel ?  How  many  times  have  you  praised 
the  Lord  for  the  clearness  of  its  light,  the 
sanctity  of  its  truth,  and  the  sureness  of  its 
immortality  ? 

3.  Another  blessedness  of  David's  life, 
was  devout  and  congenial  society.  A mong 
his  friends  were  the  saints  in  the  earth,  the 
excellent  in  whom  was  all  his  dehght.  In 
this  respect  he  felt  that  the  "  lines  were  fal- 
len to  him  in  pleasant  places  ;"*  and  for 
these  gifts  from  the  Lord  —  those  friends 
in  the  Lord  —  the  king  was  grateful.     He 

Paalm  xvi.  3,  6. 

3* 


30  THANKFULNESS. 

had,  for  instance,  Nathan,  so  faithful  and 
honest,  and  affectionate  withal,  taking  the 
Lord's  side,  and  speaking  the  Lord's  mind 
in  every  matter ;  for  his  soul's  sake  still  lin- 
gering near  his  master,  when  it  seemed  as 
if  that  soul  were  lost,  and  when  it  had  been 
as  natural  for  Nathan  to  take  his  leave ;  leal 
to  his  fallen  friend,  but  no  less  loyal  to  his 
heavenly  Lord.  He  had  Zadok  and  Abi- 
athar,  the  priests,  men  whom  David  loved 
because  they  loved  the  ark  of  God.  He 
had  Barzillal,  the  Gileadite,  a  brother  born 
for  adversity,  or  rather  a  friend  whom  afflic- 
tion brought  to  view,  like  those  brave  ocean- 
birds  that  walk  forth  upon  the  sw^ell  when 
seas  are  waxing  fierce,  and  timorous  wings 
are  wending  home.  And  he  once  had  Jon- 
athan—  Jonathan,  who  had  a  word  in  sea- 
son for  every  sorrow,  and  a  welcome  ready 
for  every  joy ;  — Jonathan,  who  understood 
the  full  meaning  of  David's  words,  and 
could  still  perceive  the  meaning  of  his 
friend  when  laboring  words  could  do  no 
more;  —  Jonathan,  whose  tastes  and  affec- 


THANKFULNESS.  31 

tions  so  coincided  with  David's  own,  that, 
like  two  cloven  tallies  brought  together, 
their  souls,  their  minds  suited  one  another 
—  fitted  and  filled  up  mutually,  and  coa- 
lescing in  all  the  freshness  of  early  life, 
clave  to  one  another.  Have  you  got  such 
a  friend?  A  Nathan,  faithful  in  his  kind- 
ness, and  wise  withal  ?  A  Barzillai,  a  friend 
in  need,  a  benefactor  in  the  day  of  poverty 
or  persecution,  or  a  comforter  in  the  hour 
of  sorrow?  A  praying  friend,  hke  Abia- 
thar,  or  one  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  like 
Zadok  the  scribe?  Above  all,  a  friend, 
like  Jonathan,  with  whom  it  is  sweet  to 
take  counsel ;  one  who  makes  the  sabbath 
more  lightsome,  and  the  road  to  the  sanc- 
tuary shorter  in  his  company ;  who  makes 
the  Bible  itself  more  memorable  by  his 
quoting  it  —  the  throne  of  grace  more  dear 
by  his  fellowship  in  prayer  —  and  the  Sav- 
iour himself  better  known  by  what  he  has 
told  you  of  him  ?  If  you  have  got  such  a 
friend,  a  gift  from  God,  your  lot  is  pleas- 
ant ;  be  thankful  and  bless  the  Lord.     And 


32  THANKFULNESS. 

bless  him  none  the  less  if  the  gift  has  gone 
back  to  God.  Few  mercies  call  for  more 
thankfulness  than  a  friend  safe  in  heaven  ; 
a  friend  who  bore  the  image  of  the  Firstborn 
so  plainly,  that  you  doubt  not  he  has  joined 
the  church  of  the  Firstborn  in  heaven ;  a 
friend  who  fought  so  good  a  fight,  and  kept 
the  faith  so  well,  that  you  now  can  see  him 
wear  the  crown  of  glory.  It  is  not  every 
one  that  overcometh.  Some  ran  well,  but 
have  been  hindered  ;  and  when  you  think 
how  uphill  is  the  road,  and  how  many  are 
the  adversaries  ;  how  heavy,  too,  the  en- 
cumbering weights  ;  they  are  well  off  who 
have  reached  the  goal.  Some  worldly  men 
are  thankful — and  rightly  thankful  —  if 
their  friends  have  gone  down  with  stainless 
names  to  honored  graves.  But  this  is  poor 
cause  for  gratitude  compared  with  yours, 
who  have  had  friends  that  went  up  with 
white  robes  to  immortal  crowns.  You 
yourselves  have  sometimes  been  thankful 
when,  after  days  of  eager  waiting,  and 
nights  when  the  rioting  tempest  kept  you 


THANKFULNESS.  33 

anxiously  wakeful,  the  telegraph  announced 
the  vessel  home  which  conveyed  your 
brother  or  your  son.  And  afloat  on  this 
world's  waters — embarked  in  that  profes- 
sion of  which  so  many  now  make  shipwreck 
—  often  beyond  your  eye,  perhaps  beyond 
your  influence  —  with  all  the  cross  currents 
of  interest  and  passion  to  contend  with — 
with  the  great  gulf-stream  of  worldly-mind- 
edness  bearing  in  on  them,  and  winds  of 
fierce  temptation  —  the  power  of  the  air  as- 
sailing them  :  the  best  moment  —  for  it  is  the 
moment  which  should  supersede  many  vex- 
ing thoughts,  as  it  answers  many  prayers  — 
is  the  moment  that  brings  them  home. 
However  pleasant  in  his  life  a  Jonathan 
may  be,  it  is  so  far  better  for  himself  that 
you  have  much  to  be  thankful  for  who  have 
a  friend  dear  as  your  own  soul  —  a  Jona- 
than in  heaven. 

4.  But  it  was  not  only  for  obvious  mer- 
cies, but  for  mercies  in  the  disguise  of  sor- 
row, that  this  man  of  God  was  grateful.* 

*  Psalm  xxxiv. :  cxix.  65,  67,  71. 


34  THANKFULNESS. 

These  are  the  topics  which  give  scope  to 
the  holy  ingenuity  of  loyal  saints;  and  as 
they  are  the  severest  trials  of  faith,  so 
they  are  the  nohlest  triumphs  of  gratitude. 
"  In  everything  give  thanks  ;"  for  "  every- 
thing is  working  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God."  You  were  strong  and  vigorous, 
and  rejoiced  in  active  exertions,  and  had 
just  planned  an  enterprise  which  you  were 
sure  would  be  useful,  and  which  you  were 
hopeful  you  might  execute  —  when  sick- 
ness came.  A  notable  break  in  your  health 
occurred,  and  you  can  never  hope  to  be 
the  same  active  man  again.  Well,  but  this 
is  the  will  of  God,  even  your  sanctification  ; 
and  without  the  sickness  you  would  not  be 
sanctified  wholly.  There  are  lessons  of  pa- 
tience and  submission,  yea  and  of  gratitude, 
which  are  best  learned  when  the  head  is  low. 
There  is  a  mellowing  of  the  man,  which  is 
best  effected  in  the  cloudy  autumn  weather 
of  weakness  or  decline  ;  a  softening  of  the 
spirit,  an  enlargement  of  experience,  a  meek- 
er on-waiting  on  God,  a  weaning  from  the 


THANKFULNESS.  35 

world,  and  a  ripening  of  faith  ;  in  short, 
the  whole  of  that  maturing  process  which 
in  believing  men  constitutes  the  meetness 
for  glory.  If  you  can  not  be  thankful  for 
the  pain,  the  sickness,  the  restraint,  be 
thankful  for  the  peaceful  fruits. — You  were 
rich  or  independent,  and  were  purposing  to 
do  some  good  with  your  money,  when,  lo  ! 
your  wealth  took  wing,  and,  like  a  scared 
eagle,  you  saw  it  spread  its  pinions  and  fly 
away  till  it  dwindled  in  distance  out  of  sight, 
and  you  have  little  hope  that  it  will  alight 
on  your  field  again.  Perhaps  not ;  and, 
like  everything  we  lose,  there  is  a  pang  in 
seeing  it  go.  But  there  are  lessons  to  be 
learned  from  its  sudden  flight.  You  meant 
to  do  good  with  it.  And  so  David  meant 
to  build  the  temple.  But  while  David  was 
projecting  a  temple  on  Zion,  the  Spirit  of 
God  was  rearing  a  more  beautiful  temple  in 
David's  soul.  And  a  copestone  was  want- 
ing—  absolute  resignation.  And  so  the 
Lord  denied  to  David  the  thing  nearest 
David's  heart,  and  David  acquiesced ;   and 


36  THANKFULNESS. 

in  that  submission  God  got  more  glory  than 
he  could  have  got  from  David's  projected 
house.  And  has  the  reverse  of  fortune  no 
alleviations  ?  Are  you  not  surprised  to 
find  how  independent  of  mere  money  peace 
of  conscience  is  ?  and  how  much  happiness 
can  be  condensed  into  the  humblest  home? 
A  cottage  will  not  hold  the  bulky  furniture 
and  sumptuous  accommodations  of  a  man- 
sion ;  but  if  God  be  there,  a  cottage  will 
hold  as  much  happiness  as  might  stock  a 
palace.  It  is  with  wealth  as  with  a  water- 
reservoir.  When  the  drought  has  dried  it 
up,  you  find  in  the  deserted  bed  things  that 
were  lost  years  ago,  and  curious  interesting 
things,  which  but  for  this  circumstance 
would  never  have  been  known.  So,  where 
it  is  a  believing  contented  mind,  it  will  dis- 
cover, when  the  flood  of  fortune  has  drain- 
ed away,  in  the  deserted  channel,  unsus- 
pected sources  of  enjoyment  and  lost  things, 
feelings  which  long  since  vanished,  simple 
pleasures  and  primitive  emotions  which 
abundance  had  overflowed.      You  had   a 


THANKFULNESS.  37 

friend,  a  parent,  or  other  beloved  relative, 
on  whose  arm  you  hoped  to  lean  far  through 
the  wilderness.  That  parent  died  at  the 
moment  he  was  most  needed  ;  that  arm  was 
broken  when  the  road  grew  roughest  and 
the  wilderness  most  weary.  Well,  perhaps 
it  made  you  think  more  of  an  arm  which 
never  grows  feeble  —  of  a  friend  that  never 
fails.  You  were  of  a  passive,  leaning  ten- 
dency—  doing  nothing  except  as  you  were 
prompted,  and  deciding  nothing  except  it 
was  decided  for  you.  This  made  you  up 
and  doing  :  this  drove  you  out  upon  the 
world  ;  sent  you  back  on  your  own  resour- 
ces ;  nay,  shut  you  up  to  an  all-sufficient 
God.  And  you  are  conscious  now,  that 
but  for  that  bitter,  yet  timely  loss,  you  had 
passed  through  life  in  the  idolatry  of  crea- 
ture admiration  and  in  the  listlessness  of 
creature  trust ;  without  energy,  without  ac- 
tivity, almost  without  separate  personality, 
and  assuredly  not  been  where  you  this  day 
are.  Afflictions,  wisely  considered  and  skil- 
fully improved,  are  blessings  in  disguise : 
4 


38  THANKFULNESS. 

and  though  they  be  not  in  themselves  joy- 
ous, but  grievous,  and  though  it  is  not  as  in 
themselves,  but  for  their  blessed  consequen- 
ces, that  the  gratitude  is  due  ;  be  it  the  re- 
moval of  the  guide  you  least  could  want, 
because  he  walked  closest  with  God  ;  be  it 
the  disappearance  from  your  dwelling  of  one 
who  shed  over  it  its  most  sacred  light ;  be 
it  the  vanishing  from  your  view  of  some 
brief  loan,  the  recall  of  the  smiling  babe 
before  he  has  had  time  to  sin  after  the  simil- 
itude of  Adam's  transgression  ;  nay,  be  it 
Borrow  sadder  still,  a  sorrow  in  which  there 
is  little  hope  or  none  ;  —  there  still  is  some- 
thing from  which  a  thankful  heart  may  elicit 
gratitude,  for  there  is  still  something  from 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  can  elicit  sanctifica- 
tion.* 

*  Another  friend  —  and  there  are  few  kinder  things  that 
friends  can  do  than  to  bring  one  another  acquainted  with 
the  memorable  passages  in  the  books  they  have  read  — 
once  awakened  some  good  thoughts  in  the  mind  of  the 
writer  by  reading  a  few  sentences  from  "  Watson  on  the 
Art  of  Divine  Contentment."  It  is  a  quaint,  kindly  book, 
foil  of  homely  sense  and  scriptural  wisdom.  Its  author 
belonged  to  the  class  of  Caleb  and  Joshua.    He  neither 


THANKFULNESS.  39 

My  dear  friends,  I  can  not  enumerate  all 
the  sweet  mercies  for  which  you  should  be 
thankful; — the  personal  mercies,  a  sound 
mind  and  a  healthy  body  ;  restoration  from 
sickness  ;  preservations  in  imminent  peril;  a 
good  education,  abundance  of  books,  and, 
perhaps,  some  leisure  to  read  them  ;  a  com- 
petent share  of  the  good  things  of  this  life, 
a  house,  food,  raiment,  occasional  rest  and 
recreation,  the  enlivening  of  a  journey,  and 
the  enlightenment  of  travel ; — family  mer- 

despised  the  goodly  land,  nor  murmured  because  of  the 
way.  And  those  who  are  apt  to  look  at  the  dark  side  of 
things  can  not  do  better  than  to  read  his  pithy  little  treat- 
ise:— 

"  Compare  your  condition  with  Christ's  upon  earth. 
What  a  poor,  mean  condition  was  he  pleased  to  be  in  for  us! 
He  was  contented  with  anything.  '  For  ye  know  the  grace 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  that  although  he  was  rich,  yet 
for  our  sakes  he  became  poor.'  He  could  have  brought 
down  a  house  from  heaven  with  hira,  or  challenged  the 
high  places  of  the  earth  ;  but  he  was  contented  to  live  poor 
that  we  might  die  rich.  The  manger  was  his  cradle,  the 
cobwebs  his  canopy.  He  who  is  now  preparing  mansions 
for  us  in  heaven,  had  none  for  himself  on  earth.  He  came 
in  forma  pauperis  ;  '  who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  took 
upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant.'  Jesus  Christ  was  in  a 
low  condition ;  he  was  never  high,  but  when  he  was  lifted 
up  upon  the  cross,  and  that  was  his  humility." 


40  THANKFULNESS. 

cies,  parents  that  were  kind  when  you  were 
helpless,  and  wise  when  you  were  foolish  ; 
the  endearing  associations  of  early  days  ; 
the  gentleness  of  kindred,  who,  if  a  little 
more  remote,  were  scarcely  less  tender 
than  father  and  mother  were  ;  the  ameni- 
ties and  joys  of  your  present  home  ;  the 
household  lamp  and  the  household  hearth, 
with  all  the  fond  familiar  faces  on  which 
they  shine  ;  the  voices  which  make  blithe 
music  in  your  dwelling ;  the  lives  which 
you  have  got  back  from  the  gates  of  the 
grave,  and  those  glorified  ones  whom  you 
would  not  wish  to  bring  back  ;  with  all 
those  numberless  indoor  delights,  those  vis- 
its of  kindness,  and  advents  of  gladness, 
and  solacements  of  sympathy,  which  He 
whose  home  was  heaven  loved  to  witness  or 
create  in  the  homes  of  earth  ; — sjnrittial 
mercies^  the  Bible,  the  sabbath,  the  house  of 
prayer,  the  closet,  the  family  altar,  the  great 
congregation,  prayer-meetings,  communion 
seasons,  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs,    Christian   friends ;  perhaps  a  con- 


THANKFULNESS.  iV 

science  void  of  offence  toward  man,  and  at 
peace  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ ;  per- 
haps a  victory  over  some  temptation  ;  per- 
haps progress  in  some  grace  ;  perhaps  an- 
swers to  prayer ;  along  with  what  may  either 
already  be  your  own,  or  may  as  assuredly  be 
made  your  own,  as  the  Bible  is  already  yours 
—  the  Comforter,  peace  in  believing,  hope  in 
dying,  a  sanctified  grave  and  a  joyful  resur- 
rection, a  mansion  in  heaven,  a  bloodbought 
harp,  a  golden  crown,  the  inheritance  of  all 
things.  These  are  a  few  of  his  mercies  ;  but 
oh  !  how  great  is  the  sum  of  them ! 

III.  Appropriate  expressions  of  Chris- 
tian gratitude. 

1.  Thanksgiving  should  occupy  a  prom- 
inent place  in  devotion,  whether  secret  or 
social.  For  this  purpose  it  were  well  to 
note  God's  mercies,  to  mark  the  return  of 
prayers,  to  treasure  up  all  the  pleasant  inci- 
dents in  your  outward  history  and  all  God's 
gracious  dealings  with  your  souls ;  and  he 
who  does  this  will  find  fresh  materials  for 
gratitude  every  day. 

4* 


42  THANKFULNESS. 

2.  Recount  God's  mercies  to  others.  In 
this  way  you  will  confer  a  double  benefit. 
You  will  quicken  your  own  soul  to  increas- 
ing fervor;  and,  by  speaking  good  of  his 
name,  you  may  kindle  the  love  and  grati- 
tude of  your  friends  and  neighbors.  A 
thankful  Christian  is  a  general  benefactor ; 
his  cheerful  countenance  diffuses  a  true  re- 
port of  that  religion,  a  great  part  of  which 
is  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.*  The 
law  of  kindness  which  dwells  on  his  lips, 
goes  far  to  neutralize  the  acerbity  and  peev- 
ishness of  the  murmuring  professors  around 
him  :  and  the  atmosphere  of  serenity  and 
joy  in  which  he  moves  reminds  you  of  that 
world  where  all  the  labors  are  labors  of  love, 
where  all  the  movements  are  a  harmony,  and 

*  "  On  the  top  of  a  coach,  in  a  heavy  rain,  a  young  wo- 
man who  eat  next  him  was  much  annoyed.  Samuel  was 
happy  in  his  seal,  audibly  blessing  the  Lord  for  all  his  mer- 
cies. When  his  neighbor  fretted,  he  exclaimed,  '  Bless  the 
Lord  it  is  not  a  shower  of  fire  and  brimstone  from  heaven  !' 
This  sentence  took  effect ;  and  he  had  the  happiness  to 
learn,  that,  in  consequence  of  his  behavior  and  conversa- 
tion, she  became  a  steady  convert  to  Christianity." — Life 
of  Samuel  Hick,  the  Village  Blacksmith,  p.  233. 


THANKFULNESS.  43 

where  every  radiant  aspect,  and  every  uplift- 
ed eye  is  plainly  saying,  "  Thou  art  worthy." 

3.  Sing  praise.  "  O  give  thanks  unto 
the  Lord  ;  call  upon  his  name  ;  make  known 
his  deeds  among  the  people.  Sing  unto 
him;  sing  psalms  unto  him."  Few  things 
are  better  fitted  to  dispel  the  evil  spirit  of 
censoriousness,  selfishness,  and  sullenness, 
than  heart-sung  hymns  of  thanksgiving. 
Besides,  adoration  and  thanksgiving  are  the 
proper  and  the  highest  order  of  psalmody. 
It  may  be  well  to  sing  our  own  sorrows 
and  our  own  desires,  but  it  is  better  still  to 
sing  God's  praise. 

4.  Embody  your  gratitude  in  offerings  of 
thankfulness.  These  are  the  only  oblations 
for  which  room  is  left  in  our  new  economy. 
Sin-offerings  and  trespass-offerings  have 
passed  away.  There  is  no  place  for  them 
now.  But  freewill-offerings  and  thank-of- 
ferings remain.*     The  gospel  has  left  am- 

*  The  substance  of  this  tract  was  originally  delivered  in 
the  form  of  a  sermon  at  Manchester,  and  then  in  London, 
on  behalf  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  in  1844. 


44  THANKFULNESS. 

pie  scope  for  these.  Its  joyful  dispensation 
is  essentially  eucharistical ;  its  glad  tidings 
should  awaken  glad  feelings  and  these  glad 
feelings  spontaneously  express  themselves 
in  sacrifices  of  thankfulness.  It  is  in  this 
way  that  the  Great  Author  of  the  gospel 
has  stamped  it  with  a  self-difFusive  tenden- 
cy— inspiring  with  a  joy  unspeakable  those 

On  Buch  an  occasion,  it  will  be  allowed  that  the  subject  was 
at  least  natural  and  appropriate.  Methodism  has  done  more 
than  any  other  ecclesiastical  community  to  infuse  a  joyous 
and  eucharistical  spirit  into  modern  Christianity  ;  —  a  spiri 
which  finds  other  outlets  besides  the  evangelic  gladness  of 
its  psalmody.  In  the  contributions  to  its  Mission  Fund  we 
find  frequent  entries  like  the  following : — 
An  Anonymous  Thank-Offering  to  God  for  the 

Mercies  of  1841  je20     0    0 

Anonymous   Token   of  Gratitude  for  twenty- 
three  Anniversaries  of  a  Wedding-Day 
Commemoration  of  a  Friend's  Birth-Day 
Family  Thank- OlTering           .... 
Family  at  Grimsby,  in  memory  of  a  deceased 
and  affectionate  Parent             .... 
Thank- Offering  from  Persons  embarking  in  Bu- 
siness     

Thank-Offering  on  New-Year's  Day,  1840     . 

When  the  sermon  above  referred  to  was  published,  by 
far  the  most  gratifying  criticism  which  met  the  author's 
eye,  was  an  acknowledgment  of  fifty  pounds,  which  some 
one,  after  perusing  it,  had  presented  to  the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society. 


23 

0 

0 

50 

0 

0 

40 

0 

0 

15 

0 

0 

10 

0 

0 

10 

0 

0 

THANKFULNESS.  45 

who  receive  it  in  simplicity  and  love  ;  and 
then,  through  their  overflowing  hearts  and 
open  hands,  transmitting  it  over  widening 
circuits  till  a  regenerate  world  has  felt  the 
leaven  of  its  heavenly  life.*  The  genius 
of  the  gospel  is  liberality.  Itself  the  most 
amazing  instance  of  the  Divine  munificence, 
its  advent  into  a  human  soul  is  marked  by 
an  instantaneous  expansion  of  its  feelings 
and  affections.  When  it  comes  in  its  ful- 
ness and  tells  in  its  power,  the  churl  be- 
comes bountiful,  the  miser  turns  out  a  phi- 
lanthropist, and  the  sluggard  issues  forth  a 
sleepless  evangelist.  And  so  invariably 
does  this  activity  indicate  the  energy  with- 
in—  so  sure  a  dynamometer  of  spiritual  vi- 
tality is  the  amount  of  what  a  man  can  do 
or  give  for  Jesus's  sake  —  that  in  order  to 
ascertain  how  freely  any  one  has  received, 
or  how  much  any  one  has  been  loved,  you 
have  only  to  ascertain  how  freely  he  can 
give,  or  how  long  he  can  labor  without 
fainting.     The  love  which  does  not  lead  to 

*  Matt.  xiii.  33. 


46  THANKFULNESS. 

labor  will  soon  die  out ;  and  the  thankful- 
ness which  does  not  imbody  itself  in  sacri- 
fices is  already  changing  to  ingratitude. 

It  is  distressing  to  see  reluctant  or  stint- 
ed offerings  laid  on  the  altar  of  the  God  of 
love  ;  and  perhaps  it  is  better  not  to  give 
at  all  than  to  give  grudgingly.  The  Lord 
loveth  a  cheerful  giver ;  and  none  of  his 
people  need  ever  lack  that  grateful  motive 
which  makes  a  cheerful  gift.  Were  you 
sick,  and  has  the  Lord  restored  your  health, 
and  like  Hezekiah,  are  you  hving  on  a  sec- 
ond lease  of  life  ?  Were  you  far  away  in 
a  foreign  land,  and  across  the  dangerous 
deep  —  has  the  arm  of  providential  mercy 
brought  you  home  ?  Have  new  wells  burst 
on  you  in  the  valley  of  Baca,  and  new 
songs  cheered  you  in  your  house  of  pil- 
grimage ?  Have  you  found  new  friends,  or 
new  sweetness  in  the  old  ?  Has  a  brighter 
blaze  burst  from  the  domestic  hearth,  or  a 
richer  zest  been  infused  into  the  household 
cup  ?  Have  you  cause  for  rejoicing  in  those 
that  remain,  or  a  hope  full  of  immortality 


THANKFULNESS.  47 

regarding  those  that  are  gone?  Then 
commemorate  the  mercy  in  a  gift  of  grati- 
tude. Or  should  all  other  topics  fail  — 
should  you  look  back  on  weary  months  and 
find  no  spot  of  your  earthly  journey  bright 
enough  to  deserve  an  Ebenezer,  then  think 
of  the  Bible,  and  the  gospel  ministry,  and 
the  Great  Comforter,  and  heaven  ;  and  if 
everything  else  should  fail,  cast  your  gift 
into  the  treasury,  with  this  motto  round  it, 
"  Thanks  be  to  God  for  his   unspeakable 

gift." 


TO   THOSE   THROUGHOUT   THE   WORLD   "WHO  LOVE 
THE   LORD   JESUS   IN   SINCERITY  : 

AN  ADDRESS 

ON   BEHALF   OF   THE   PROPOSED 

EVANGELICAL     ALLIANCE. 


The  church  of  Christ  has  all  along  been 
one.  It  is  made  up  of  all  those,  and  only 
those,  who  in  every  place,  and  of  every 
party,  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  as  their 
Saviour,  and  obey  him  as  their  sovereign. 
One  life  pervades  the  whole  band  of  disci- 
pleship  —  that  life  of  which  the  regenerating 
spirit  is  the  source ;  so  that  they  are  vitally 
one.  And  in  the  eye  of  Omniscience,  one 
prevailing  character  marks  them  all  —  a 
character  predominating  over  all  singulari- 
ties of  creed,  and  peculiarities  of  temper 


THE   PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.       49 

and  practice  —  the  all-absorbing  feature  of 
oneness  with  Christ.  Vitally  one  —  viewed 
from  the  highest  of  all  standing-points,  they 
are  visibly  one. 

And  there  was  once  a  time  when  nothing 
was  more  notorious  than  the  church's  unity. 
From  no  peculiar  garb,  from  no  studious 
uniformity,  but  from  the  warmth  of  their 
affections  and  the  depth  of  their  sympathies, 
so  obvious  was  their  oneness  that  mere  on- 
lookers said,  *'  Behold  these  Christians,  how 
they  love  one  another  !"  Filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  "the  multitude  of  believers 
were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul." 

But  these  days  have  passed  away,  and 
for  ages  a  divided  church  has  been  the 
lamentation  of  the  holiest  men  ;  and  the 
healing  of  its  divisions  has  been  the  anxious 
problem  of  many  of  the  church's  wisest 
members.  Various  schemes  have  been  sug- 
gested. Some  have  sought  the  remedy  in 
vigorous  legislation.  They  have  recom- 
mended as  the  cure  of  discord  a  general 
council,  followed  up  by  the  edicts  of  kings 
4 


50  ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF    OF 

and  emperors.  They  have  said,  "Let  the 
most  learned  divines  assemble  and  deter- 
mine the  true  theology,  and  then  let  the 
rulers  of  the  land  enforce  it ;  let  royal  proc- 
lamation or  act  of  parliament  enjoin  one 
creed,  one  worship,  and  one  polity  through- 
out the  country,  and  then  we  shall  have 
unity."  And  it  is  with  this  view  that  the 
decrees  of  councils  have  so  often  been  en- 
forced by  civil  law,  and  that  dissent  from 
the  legalized  religion  has  so  often  been 
made  a  crime  forbidden  by  the  statute,  and 
punished  by  the  judge.  But  another  and 
milder  class,  aware  that  compulsion  is  not 
concord,  and  that  a  forced  concession  is  not 
faith,  have  tried  another  plan.  They  have 
taken  up  the  points  of  difference,  and  have 
defined,  and  explained,  and  distinguished, 
and  have  attempted  to  show  that  after  all 
there  is  no  real  diversity,  but  that  Luther- 
ans, and  Calvinists,  and  Arminians,  mean 
the  same  thing,  though  they  have  an  un- 
fortunate way  of  expressing  their  mutual 
harmony ;  or  if  there  really  be  some  dis- 


THE   PROPOSED    EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      51 

crepancy,  it  is  so  slight  that  they  might 
well  consent  to  spht  the  difference.  On 
this  system  Richard  Baxter  tried  to  recon- 
cile the  advocates  of  a  limited  and  a  uni- 
versal atonement,  and  Archbishop  Usher 
sought  to  unite  the  opposing  forms  of 
episcopacy  and  presbytery.  But  the  usual 
upshot  of  these  eclectic  efforts  is  a  new 
division,  and  the  via  media  proves  a  via 
terda.  The  difference  is  split,  but  the  di- 
vision is  not  healed.  Another,  and  an  in- 
creasing class,  have,  therefore,  felt  that 
Christian  concord  can  never  be  effected  by 
civil  compulsion  on  the  one  hand,  nor  by 
a  scheme  of  giving  and  taking  on  the  other. 
They  feel  that  Christian  union  is  an  affair 
of  neither  legislation  nor  logic,  but,  as  in 
the  beginning,  must  be  the  result  of  love. 
Intelligent  enough  to  distinguish  the  out- 
ward differences  of  his  brethren,  but  per- 
spicacious enough,  through  all  peculiarities, 
to  discover  their  vital  identity  —  magnani- 
mous enough  to  overlook  much  that  he  may 
reckon  odd  or  erroneous  for  the  sake  of 


52  ADDRESS   ON  BEHALF   OF 

more  that  he  deems  noble  and  right  —  full 
of  that  regenerate  instinct  which  hails  the 
Saviour's  image  rather  than  his  own  fac- 
simile, and  shining  in  those  holy  beauties 
which  win  each  Christian  heart — so  amiable 
as  to  make  his  fellowship  an  object  of  de- 
sire, so  cordial  and  catholic  that  he  rejoices 
to  give  it,  but,  withal,  so  zealous  for  the 
truth,  and  so  expHcit  in  his  conduct,  that 
he  can  give  it  without  suspicion  of  his  per- 
sonal soundness  ;  his  is  the  right  attitude  for 
Christian  union,  whose  personal  piety  is 
constantly  attracting  brotherly  love,  and 
whose  prompt  affection  instantly  recipro- 
cates each  overture  of  brotherly  kindness. 
In  healing  the  dissensions  of  a  divided 
church,  legislation  will  fail  and  logic  will 
fail,  but  LOVE  will  never  fail. 

For  years  there  has  existed,  in  almost  all 
quarters  of  Christendom,  a  strong  desire  to 
draw  more  closely  together,  and  to  show,  in 
some  overt  and  signal  way,  the  actual  one- 
ness of  the  body  of  Christ.  Both  on  the 
continent,  and  in  America  and  England, 


THE   PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL   ALLIANCE.      53 

much  has  been  written  to  clear  away  diffi- 
cuhies  and  expedite  the  issue.  Repeated 
meetings  have  been  held,  not  only  to  ex- 
plain the  truth,  but  to  exhibit  it;  and  what- 
ever other  effect  the  great  assemblage  of 
June  1,  1843,  may  have  produced,  it  at 
least  helped  all  present  to  understand  the 
blessed  oneness  and  joyful  worship  of  the 
upper  sanctuary.  Not  only  was  the  name 
of  Jesus  so  predominant  that  every  other 
name  was  forgotten,  but  he  himlelf  was  so 
sensibly  near,  that  no  disciple  could  then 
and  there  have  felt  it  difficult  to  die.  That 
London  meeting  was  followed  up  in  Dub- 
lin, and  elsewhere  ;  and  in  the  various  forms 
of  a  dull  discomfort  and  at  the  present  state 
of  true  rehgion,  or  a  vehement  yearning 
after  better  acquaintance  and  closer  alliance 
with  other  Christians,  or  an  intelligent  per- 
ception of  the  mighty  results  hkely  to  follow 
a  large  embodiment  and  striking  manifesta- 
tion of  Christian  oneness,  the  union-spirit 
has  been  widely  spreading.  Last  autumn, 
after  many  prayers  and  communings  among 
5* 


54  ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF   OF 

themselves,  ministers  and  members  of  seven 
denominations  in  Scotland  issued  a  circular, 
inviting  their  friends  in  England  and  Ireland 
to  a  conference  at  Liverpool,  on  the  first 
day  of  the  bygone  October.  Though  many 
most  appropriate  individuals,  and  even  de- 
nominations, were  unintentionally  omitted 
in  sending  round  the  invitation,  and  many 
whose  hearts  were  in  it  forbore  to  attend 
till  they  should  see  what  form  the  move- 
ment took',  upward  of  two  hundred  attended 
— representing  the  talent,  zeal,  and  piety, 
of  seventeen  of  the  largest  Christian  socie- 
ties in  the  empire.  To  enumerate  the 
names  —  illustrious  in  the  history  of  mod- 
ern evangelism  there  assembled,  or  to  de- 
scribe the  heart-melting,  the  brotherly  kind- 
ness and  mutual  confidence,  the  devotional 
enlargement  and  sacred  joy  of  those  ever- 
to-be-remembered  days,  is  not  the  object 
of  this  address.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that 
the  Lord  was  with  us  of  a  truth,  and  that, 
after  ample  consultation  and  prayer,  it  was 
resolved  to  convene  a  more  extensive  meet- 


THE  PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      55 

ing  in  London  next  June,*  to  which  Christ- 
ians from  all  parts  of  the  world  shall  be 
invited.  It  was  agreed  that  the  persons 
invited  to  this  great  conference  should  be 
persons  holding  what  are  usually  under- 
stood to  be  evangelical  views  regarding  such 
important  doctrines  as —  :-. 

"  1.  The  divine  inspiration,  authority, 
and  sufficiency  of  Holy  Scripture. 

*'  2.  The  unity  of  the  Godhead,  and  the 
trinity  of  persons  therein. 

"  3.  The  utter  depravity  of  human  na- 
ture, in  consequence  of  the  fall. 

"4.  The  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God, 
and  his  work  of  atonement  for  sinners  of 
mankind. 

*'  5.  The  justification  of  the  sinner  by 
faith  alone. 

*'6.  The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
the  conversion  and  sanctification  of  the 
sinner. 

"7.  The  right  and  the  duty  of  private 

*  The  time  was  subsequently  altered  to  the  month  of 
August. 


56  ADDRESS    ON   BEHALF    OF 

judgment  in  the  interpretation  of  Holy 
Scripture. 

"  8.  The  divine  institution  of  the  Chris- 
tian nninistry,  and  the  authority  and  per- 
petuity of  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper." 

It  was,  among  other  suggestions,  agreed  to 
recommend  to  this  conference  of  ecumenical 
evangelism  the  formation  of  an  institution,  to 
be  called  The  Evangelical  Alliance, 
for  carrying  out  the  objects  included  in 
Christian  Union. 

In  fulfilment  of  a  duty  devolved  on  them 
at  the  Liverpool  conference,  the  London 
branch  of  the  provisional  committee  have 
issued  this  brief  address,  in  order  to  convey 
to  their  brethren  a  general  idea  of  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  it  is  proposed  to  establish 
the  intended  alliance,  and  to  mention  some 
of  the  objects  which  it  might  hopefully  seek. 
And  to  prevent  misconceptions,  it  may  be 
well  to  state  in  the  outset  some  of  the  things 
which  it  is  not,  and  at  which  it  does  not  aim. 

L  The  proposed  alliance  asks  no  sur- 


THE  PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      57 

render  of  conscientious  conviction.  There 
is  nothing  which  a  good  man  values  more 
than  his  religious  belief.  There  are  some 
things  which  it  may  cost  him  an  effort  to 
abandon,  and  some  things  which  may  cost 
him  little.  He  may  be  called  on  to  part 
with  his  money,  and  may  be  able  to  tell  it 
down,  and  hand  it  over  to  its  new  possessor 
without  a  moment's  pang  or  the  most  secret 
murmur.  He  may  be  constrained  to  part 
with  some  object  of  endeared  affection,  and 
may  feel  that  in  its  vanishing  his  better  and 
happier  self  has  gone  away  ;  but  when  he 
feels  that  the  Lord  hath  taken  it,  he  feels  a 
mournful  blessedness,  a  sublime  self-abdica- 
tion, in  letting  it  go.  And  he  may  be  forced 
to  surrender  some  memorial  of  distant  affec- 
tion or  departed  friendship  ;  and  however 
brawny  the  arm  which  wrings  it  from  his 
grasp,  he  almost  feels  that  there  is  a  sac- 
rilege in  not  letting  life  go  with  it.  But  in 
all  these  cases,  at  the  worst  they  are  the 
natural  feelings  which  are  wounded ;  the 
conscience  remains  unhurt.     It  is  far  other- 


58  ADDRESS    ON    BEHALF    OF 

wise,  however,  when  a  man  is  called  to 
abandon  a  truth  which  his  Saviour  has  taught 
him  to  believe,  or  a  duty  which  his  Saviour 
has  taught  him  to  practise.  The  matter 
may  be  minute,  but  if  he  believes  it  to  be 
his  Saviour's  will,  he  can  not  sacrifice  it 
without  a  dismal  sense  of  delinquency.  He 
feels  that  he  is  a  traitor.  His  conscience 
is  lacerated  at  the  moment;  and  even  should 
the  deadly  wound  be  healed  —  should  he 
contrive  to  argue  or  cajole  himself  into  sub- 
sequent self-complacency,  the  scar  of  such 
a  wound,  by  making  conscience  more  cal- 
lous, leaves  his  religious  vitahty  less.  Hence 
many  went  to  the  Liverpool  conference  with 
a  painful  misgiving.  They  felt  that  if,  in 
order  to  union,  they  must  surrender  an  iota 
of  what  they  believed  to  be  the  truth  in 
Jesus,  they  could  not  purchase  even  so 
great  a  blessing  at  such  a  perilous  price. 
Looking  over  all  the  tenets  in  their  creed, 
they  could  not  find  one  so  mite-like  that 
they  dared  to  buy  even  union  with  it.  And 
in  this  they  were  right,  for  there  is  not  a 


THE   PROPOSED  EVANGELICAL   ALLIANCE.        59 

tenet  in  "the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints"  so  insignificant,  but  some  saint  has 
thought  it  worth  while  to  be  a  martyr  for  it. 

But  such  apprehensions  were  entirely 
chimerical.  The  conference  was  no  con- 
spiracy to  inveigle  the  members  into  a  sanc- 
tion of  each  other's  opinions,  or  into  a  sur- 
render of  their  own.  No  man  was  asked 
to  leave  his  peculiarities  outside  the  door  ; 
and  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  conference 
if  each  did  not  carry  back  to  London  and 
Leeds,  to  Dublin  and  Edinburgh,  all  the 
theology  which  he  brought  to  Liverpool. 

It  was  felt  and  allowed  that  important 
diversities  of  sentiment  exist  among  those 
who  give  every  evidence  of  sincere  disciple- 
ship  ;  and  it  was  also  felt  that  it  would  be 
a  happy  day  which  witnessed  the  melting 
of  these  diversities  into  a  blessed  unanimity. 
But  then  it  was  equally  acknowledged  that 
some  other  things  must  first  be  effected,  and 
it  was  for  one  of  these  anterior  things  that 
the  conference  had  now  assembled.  It  was 
not  met  for  the  discussion  of  dogmas,  but 


60  ADDRESS    ON   BEHALF   OF 

for  the  diffusion  of  brotherly  love.  It  was 
not  to  sit  as  a  reconciler  of  conflicting  senti- 
ments, but  as  the  restorer  of  ancient  affec- 
tions. It  did  not  arbitrate  denominational 
differences,  but  it  sought  the  outlet  and  in- 
crease of  Christian  charity.  It  rejoiced  to 
find  that  the  points  were  many  and  mo- 
mentous on  which  all  present  agreed ;  but 
it  neither  said  that  the  points  on  which  they 
dissented  were  trivial,  nor  that  these  dis- 
agreements could  be  discussed  and  settled 
there.  It  allowed  that  all  the  members 
might  be  equally  sincere  in  their  creed, 
and  honest  in  their  peculiarities ;  and  not 
wishing  any  man  to  abandon  his  convictions 
till  he  could  abandon  them  conscientiously, 
it  left  all  to  keep  intact  and  inviolate  their 
respective  opinions,  till  the  flow  of  mutual 
love  had  increased  their  common  Chris- 
tianity. 

2.  But  more  than  this :  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  asks  no  one  to  conceal  his  religious 
convictions.  A  lover  of  truth  loves  to  pro- 
claim it.     When  he  finds  it,  he  calls  his 


THE   PROPOSED    EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      61 

friends  and  neighbors  to  rejoice  with  him. 
He  invites  them  to  share  it  with  him  ;  and 
to  bid  him  be  silent,  is  to  bid  him  be  selfish. 
But  if  it  really  be  truth  which  the  man  has 
discovered,  and  if  it  really  be  philanthropy 
which  makes  him  proclaim  it,  he  will  neither 
emulate  the  roar  of  the  lion,  nor  borrow  the 
Pharisee's  trumpet.  Truth,  as  the  gospel 
conveys  it,  is  benignant  and  mellowing;  and 
the  man  who  finds  it  in  joy  will  speak  it  in 
love.  He  will  also  speak  it  at  right  times 
and  right  places,  and  in  tones  whose  inten- 
sity shall  bear  some  proportion  to  the  in- 
trinsic worth  of  the  subject.  But  with  such 
provisoes  —  provisoes  which  the  Christian 
wisdom  of  many  has  already  suggested  to 
themselves — the  Evangelical  Alliance  would 
concede  to  all  who  hold  in  common  vital 
truth,  the  utmost  freedom  of  discourse.  As 
it  asks  no  man  to  surrender  an  iota  of  his 
creed,  so  it  would  ask  no  man  to  abate  by 
a  single  atom  his  Christian  "  liberty  of 
prophesying."  As  it  is  not  a  union  of  de- 
6 


62  ADDRESS    ON   BEHALF    OF 

nominations,  so  neither  is  it  a  silencing  of 
particular  testimonies. 

3.  After  this,  we  need  scarcely  add   that 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  does  not  ask  any 
cessation  of  denominational  effort,  nor  de- 
mand of  any  community  to  suspend  its  at- 
tempts at  ecclesiastical  development.     Just 
as  every  individual  disciple  is  in  constant 
danger  of  seeking  his  own  things  more  than 
the  things  of  Jesus  Christ,  so  every  Chris- 
tian society  incurs  the  same  hazard ;  and 
whether  they   be   individuals  or  societies, 
they  cease  to  be  in  a  wholesome  state  when 
their  own  things  become  dearer  than  the 
church  of  Christ  and  its  wide  interests.     It 
is   a   sad   inversion  of  the  apostolic  spirit, 
when   the   transference    of  a   conspicuous 
proselyte  from  one  section  of  the  church  to 
another  is  a  source  of  higher  exultation  than 
the  accession  to  the  church  of  the  saved  of 
some  notorious   sinner   from   an    ungodly 
world.     The  one  event  excites  rapture  in 
heaven ;  perhaps  the  other  is  too  trivial  to 
attract  any  notice  there.     Still  there  is  a 


THE   PROPOSED    EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      63 

limit  within  which  denominational  zeal  might 
be  innocent,  and  even  salutary.  lu  civil 
society  we  have  often  witnessed  an  honest 
rivalry  between  different  families — a  strife 
who  should  count  up  the  largest  list  of  wor- 
thies, and  send  out  into  the  commonwealth 
the  goodliest  band  of  brave,  or  patriotic,  or 
learned  sons  ;  and  this  competition  occa- 
sioned no  heart-burnings  and  no  bloodshed 
—  nothing  but  a  higher  style  of  family  no- 
bility. Would  to  God  that  the  different 
clans  and  families  in  the  Saviour's  kingdom 
had  the  same  loyalty  and  patriotism  ;  and 
instead  of  wasting  their  strength  in  mutual 
extermination,  were  striving  who  should 
send  out  the  noblest  missions  and  the  most 
devoted  ministers  —  who  should  produce 
the  holiest  people  and  the  most  numerous 
converts  —  who  should  supply  the  largest 
contribution  to  the  common  Christianity, 
and  achieve  the  greatest  services  for  the 
common  Saviour  !  To  do  this,  the  per- 
fecting of  denominational  machinery,  and 
the  development  of  denominational  resour- 


64  ADDRESS    ON    BEHALF    OF 

ces,  might  be  needful ;  but  there  would  be 
no  need  to  demolish  our  neighbor's  imple- 
ments, or  abstract  our  neighbor's  workmen. 
There  need  be  no  breaking  into  each  oth- 
er's fold,  so  long  as  there  are  so  many  sheep 
in  the  wilderness  ;  and  there  need  be  no 
strife  between  the  herdmen,  so  long  as  each 
may  dig  his  own  well,  and  write  over  it  — 
*'Rehoboth." 

But  it  is  time  now  to  be  telling  what  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  actually  is,  and  what 
is  its  absolute  aim. 

Its  objects  are  — 

1.  To  promote  a  closer  intercourse  and 
warmer  affection  among  the  people  of  God 
now  scattered  abroad. 

2.  To  exhibit  before  the  world  the  actu- 
al oneness  of  the  church  of  Christ. 

3.  To  adopt  united  measures  for  the  de- 
fence and  extension  of  the  common  Chris- 
tianity. In  other  words,  mutual  affec- 
tion, MANIFESTED  UNITY,  and    COMMON 

MEASURES,  are  the  one,  though  threefold, 
object  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 


THE    PROPOSED  EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      65 

I.  The  Evangelical  Alliance  seeks  to  ex- 
tend and  strengthen  the  mutual  affection  of 
the  people  of  God,  irrespective  of  the  coun- 
tries where  they  dwell,  and  the  communi- 
ties to  which  they  belong.  This  object  is 
specific,  and  of  itself  sufficiently  important 
to  merit  all  the  effort.  Love  to  the  breth- 
ren is  as  much  a  duty  as  sobriety  or  the 
sanctification  of  the  sabbath,  and  it  is  a  du- 
ty much  forgotten.  If  it  be  worth  while  to 
form  societies  for  the  better  observance  of 
the  fourth  commandment,  or  the  sixth,  it  is 
surely  as  legitimate,  and  at  the  present  mo- 
ment as  needful,  to  establish  one  for  the 
better  observance  of  Christ's  personal  com- 
mandment :  *'  A  new  commandment  I  give 
unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another."  And 
though  the  Alliance  should  turn  out  nothing 
more  than  a  peace-society  for  Christendom 
—  a  society  for  softening  asperities,  and  for 
healing  deadly  feuds  between  individual  dis- 
ciples—  it  would  accomplish  a  sufficient 
end  :  one  which  would  identify  it  with  the 
6* 


66  ADDRESS    ON   BEHALF   OF 

Prince  of  Peace,  and  serve  it  heir  to  the 
seventh  beatitude. 

So  precious  are  kindness,  and  confidence, 
and  mutual  endearment,  that  the  intercourse 
of  secular  life  is  chiefly  an  effort  to  secure 
them.  The  visits  of  neighbors  to  one  an- 
other—  their  friendly  meetings  and  fireside 
communings  —  are  an  acknowledgment  that 
love  is  a  pearl  of  great  price ;  and  although 
the  genuine  pearl  can  not  be  found  in  the 
field  of  secular  society,  it  is  well  worthy  of 
the  most  wistful  search.  The  meetings  of 
learned  men,  their  literary  reunions  and  sci- 
entific conversaziones,  imply,  not  only  that 
their  frequenters  are  the  devotees  of  science, 
but  that  their  ardor  for  discovery  has  given 
them  an  affinity  for  one  another.  They  are 
not  content  to  read  the  researches  of  their 
brethren,  the  dry  results  in  the  transactions 
of  their  several  societies,  but  they  long  to 
see  their  associates  face  to  face.  And  if 
Christians  had  as  much  brotherly  love  as 
worldly  men  have  neighborly  kindness  ;  if 
they  had  as  much  zeal  for  Christianity  as 


THE   PROPOSED  EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.       67 

our  philosophers  have  zeal  for  chymistry  or 
natural  history,  they  would  long  to  find 
themselves  in  one  another's  company ;  and 
though  they  might  differ  on  some  questions 
of  detail,  like  two  astronomers  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  nebular  hypothesis,  but  on  the 
same  side  of  the  Newtonian  theory,  their 
large  agreement  and  common  ultimatum 
would  make  it  a  happy  meeting,  and  supply 
materials  for  animated  and  long-remembered 
intercourse.  And  if  at  this  moment  there 
are  Christians  so  cold  to  Christianity,  or  so 
shy  of  one  another,  that  they  had  rather 
never  meet,  it  is  an  urgent  reason  for  their 
coming  together  without  longer  loss  of  time. 
Nothing  will  so  soon  banish  from  their  fan- 
cies the  printed  chimera  as  a  sight  of  the 
living  saint. 

The  Evangelical  Alliance  will  therefore 
seek  to  "  cherish  in  the  various  branches 
of  the  church  of  Christ  the  spirit  of  broth- 
erly love,  and  will  open  and  maintain,  by 
correspendence  and  otherwise,  fraternal  in- 
tercourse between  all  parts  of  the  Christian 


ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF   OF 


world."  Evangelic  Christendom  is  at  this 
moment  in  the  predicament  of  a  country 
which  has  suffered  from  the  repeated  shocks 
of  an  earthquake.  In  its  territory  there  are 
many  flaws  and  fissures  ;  but  the  great  gulfs 
are  few.  So  narrow  are  some  of  the  sepa- 
rations, that  they  would  long  since  have 
healed ;  the  crevices  would,  of  their  own 
accord,  have  closed,  had  not  party  zeal 
driven  down  its  wedges  to  make  the  gap 
perpetual  ;  and  even  where  the  chasms  are 
widest,  they  are  not  so  wide  but  a  lofty  in- 
tellect or  a  loving  spirit  might  easily  cross 
them.  The  real  barrier  to  intercourse  is 
not  the  breadth  of  divisions,  but  the  bitter- 
ness of  controversy.  It  is  not  the  separate- 
ness  of  the  church's  different  portions,  but 
the  sectarianism  of  the  separate.  It  is  the 
rancor  of  debate,  the  personal  malignity, 
the  odium  theologicum,  which,  if  not  the 
grand  perpetuation  of  party,  is  the  strong- 
hold of  bigotry,  and  the  great  obstacle  to 
Christian  intercourse.  It  is  this  which 
into  the  narrower  clefts  forces  the  wedges 


THE    PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL   ALLIANCE.      69 

which  shall  keep  them  for  ever  open.  It 
is  this  which  plants  its  sentinels  along  the 
obscure  boundary,  to  prevent  uninstructed 
feet  from  overstepping  it.  It  is  this  which 
seizes  the  gangways  which  conciliation  or 
magnanimity  has  thrown  across  the  wider 
rents,  and  hurls  them  indignant  down  into 
the  deep.  And  it  is  this  which  flings  from 
its  Tarpeian  rock  the  traitors  who  have 
been  detected  paying  friendly  visits  beyond 
the  interdicted  line. 

Now,  controversy  may  for  the  present  be 
needful ;  but  there  never  was,  and  never 
will  be,  need  for  its  rancor.  We  may  have 
all  its  victories  without  its  virulence,  all  its 
truths  without  its  personal  tragedies  ;  and 
that  will  be  the  most  wholesome  state  of 
the  church  when  discussions  wax  kindly, 
and  controversies  are  conducted  in  the 
spirit,  not  of  party  feuds,  but  of  friendly  in- 
vestigations. Iron  sharpens  iron  :  and  the 
day  may  come,  when,  like  honest  experi- 
menters in  physics,  earnest  inquirers  in  the- 
ology will  employ  their  respective  acumen, 


70  ADDRESS   ON    BEHALF    OF 

not  in  perplexing  one  another,  but  in  pursu- 
ing joint  researches  ;  and  will  find  their  full 
reward,  not  in  a  bewildered  public,  but  in  a 
text  clearly  interpreted  and  a  doctrine  finally 
demonstrated,  in  a  long  debate  concluded, 
and  a  weary  question  for  ever  set  at  rest. 

Dear  brethren,  the  Evangelical  Alliance 
is  primarily  a  society  for  the  increase  and 
diffusion  of  Christian  love.  Love  is  a  no- 
ble grace,  and  any  pains  expended  in  fos- 
tering and  spreading  it  will  be  well  be- 
stowed. The  magnanimity  which  bears  the 
infirmities  of  the  weak,  the  charily  which 
receives  one  another  as  Christ  also  received 
us,  the  considerateness  which  denies  itself 
and  pleases  a  neighbor  for  his  good,  the 
love  which  '*  beareth  all  things,  believ- 
eth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth 
all  things"  —  this  love  is  as  rare  as  it  is 
Christ-like,  as  difficult  as  it  is  divine.  '  To 
our  proud  carnality  there  may  be  something 
more  commanding  in  the  boisterous  and 
belligerent  attributes  ;  but  to  a  sanctified  ap- 
prehension there  is  something  more  sublime 


THE    PKOPOSED    EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.       71 

in  his  brave  charity  who  quells  a  feud,  or 
subdues  his  own  offended  spirit.  He  may- 
be a  valiant  man  who  points  the  gun  in  the 
hour  of  battle  ;  but  he  is  a  bolder  man  who 
lifts  the  shell  from  the  crowded  deck  and 
flings  it  hissing  into  the  surge.  He  may 
be  a  valiant  spirit  who,  muzzle  to  muzzle, 
plies  his  roaring  artillery  on  a  belabored  and 
reluctant  church,  and  waves  his  victorious 
stump  as  he  sees  the  hostile  flag  come  down ; 
but  he  is  the  truest  hero  who,  espying  an 
explosive  mischief  on  the  deck  —  a  bomb 
fraught  with  foolish  questions  and  wordy 
strifes  —  contrives  to  pitch  it  timely  over- 
board. There  may  be  something  august  in 
the  dark  thunder-cloud  as  it  frowns  and 
grumbles  over  quaking  fields  ;  but  there  is 
somethino;  mio^htier  and  more  wondrous  in 
the  lightning-rod  which  is  gradually  stealing 
from  that  cloud  its  fiery  elements,  and  con- 
verting its  dingy  wrath  into  harmless  vapor. 
And  there  is  something  commanding  in  the 
flashing  zeal  and  muttering  orthodoxy  of 
the  surcharged  disputant — something  that 


72  ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF   OF 

calls  a  rueful  attention  to  himself  in  the  wil- 
ful spirit  as  he  heaves  his  lowering  bulk  be- 
tween a  happy  church  and  the  smiling  fir- 
mament ;  but  there  is  something  nobler  in 
that  wise  and  quiet  spirit,  that  lightning-rod 
whose  gentle  interference  and  noiseless  op- 
eration are  drawing  off  the  angry  sparkles, 
and  thinning  the  gloomy  mischief  into  azure 
and  daylight  again.  And  there  may  be 
grandeur  in  the  hailstorm  which  hurls  its 
icy  boulders  over  a  dismantled  province  — 
which  strews  the  battered  sod  with  dead 
birds  and  draggled  branches,  and  leaves  the 
forest  a  grisly  waste  of  riven  trunks  and 
leafless  antlers.  But  who  does  not  rather 
bless  the  benignant  rain  as  it  comes  tender- 
ly down  on  the  mown  grass,  or  the  rainbow 
as  it  melts  in  fragrant  drops  and  glowing 
flowers,  and  then  from  grateful  fields  and 
laughing  hills  glides  back  into  its  parent 
sun?  Even  so  there  may  a  terrible  im- 
portance attend  the  rattling  zealot  who  sends 
a  storm  of  frozen  dogmas  through  Christen- 
dom, or  through  his  particular  society,  and 


THE  PROPOSED  EVANGELICAL  ALLIANCE.   73 

leaves  it  a  desolation  ;  who  certainly  kills 
some  weeds,  but  demolishes  each  radiant 
flower,  and  annihilates  the  season's  crop. 
Yet  who  does  not  rather  pray  that  his  may 
be  the  brotherly  kindness  which  dissolves 
in  mild  enchantment  on  sullen  natures,  and 
in  genial  invigoration  on  such  as  are  droop- 
ing or  dying  —  a  transforming  love,  like  His 
whose  calm  descending  is  forthwith  followed 
by  the  flourishing  of  righteousness,  and  the 
abundance  of  peace  ? 

11.  A  second  object  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  is  to  manifest  the  large  agreement 
which  actually  subsists  between  the  genuine 
members  of  the  church  of  Christ ;  that  is, 
to  exhibit  as  far  as  possible  the  existing  one- 
ness of  the  Christian  church.  It  may  some- 
times be  a  mere  pretext  for  carelessness, 
but  we  believe  it  is  often  a  real  stumbling- 
block  to  earnestness,  that  Christians  are  so 
divided ;  and  though  it  may  be  very  just  to 
argue  that  amid  all  this  diversity  there  is  an 
actual  identity,  it  would  be  more  convenient 

to  exhibit  it.     The  communion  of  saints  is 

7 


74  ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF   OF 

a  tenet  in  every  creed,  and  a  matter  of  re- 
generate consciousness  with  every  Chris- 
tian ;  but  to  a  worldly  man  it  is  a  thing  so 
recondite,  an  affair  of  such  delicate  induc- 
tion, and  contradicted  by  so  many  appear- 
ances, that  he  may  well  be  excused  for  over- 
looking it.  As  a  source  of  comfort  to  Chris- 
tians, this  latent  unity  is  valuable ;  but  be- 
fore it  can  become  an  argument  and  an  ele- 
ment of  influence  on  those  who  are  with- 
out, this  latent  unity  must  be  made  obvious 
and  palpable,  and,  if  possible,  notorious. 

And  does  not  this  unity  exist  ?  Inde- 
pendently of  the  outward  character  which 
they  exhibit,  are  there  not  certain  great 
fads  which  all  Christians  credit,  and  cer- 
tain feelings  which  all  Christians  share  in 
common  ?  That  the  Bible  is  the  word  of 
God  ;  that  our  earth  was  visited  eighteen 
centuries  ago  by  the  Son  of  God  incarnate ; 
•that  in  his  sufferings  and  death  he  effected 
an  atonement  for  sinners  of  mankind;  that 
this  atonement  is  available  to  the  entire  and 
instant  justification  of  the  sinner  who  be- 


THE   PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL   ALLIANCE.      75 

lieves  in  Jesus  ;  that  Christ  now  lives  and 
reigns  the  head  of  his  ransomed  church  ; 
and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  sent  forth  into 
the  world  to  convince  of  sin,  and  to  con- 
duct souls  to  the  Saviour,  and  to  sanctify 
the  children  of  God  :  truths  Uke  these  ev- 
ery Christian  credits.  There  may  be  fa- 
vorite ways  of  stating  them,  and  there  may 
be  different  ways  of  systematizing  and  ar- 
ranging them  ;  but  there  is  no  variance  as 
to  their  revealed  reality  and  historic  verity  : 
they  are  facts  which  have  the  suffrage  of 
consenting  Christendom.  And  even  so, 
there  are  certain  feelings  which  distinguish 
the  whole  family  of  the  faithful :  complacen- 
cy in  the  revealed  character  of  the  living 
God,  love  to  his  holy  law,  hatred  of  sin,  a 
desire  to  do  their  heavenly  Father's  will 
and  possess  his  conscious  favor,  zeal  for  his 
honor,  love  to  his  people,  and  delight  in 
bis  worship :  these  affections,  whether  con- 
stant or  intermitting,  whether  vivid  or  more 
vague,  every  disciple  of  Jesus  knows  them. 
Every  man  is  a  Christian  who  rests  on  the 


76  ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF   OF 

Lord  Jesus  as  his  Saviour,  who  obeys  him 
as  his  Lord,  and  who  rejoices  in  him  as  his 
all-sufficient  friend.  And  as  these  are  their 
common  characteristics,  why  should  they 
not  unite  in  proclaiming  to  the  world  that 

LOVE  AND  LOYALTY  TO  THE  LoRD  JeSUS, 

in  which  they  are  all  agreed  ? 

The  basis  of  the  projected  union  com- 
prehends a  body  of  doctrine,  regarding 
which  the  Evangelical  Alliance  might  send 
forth,  if  needful,  its  united  testimony. 
Should  a  controversy  arise  respecting  the 
composition  of  some  mineral,  and  should 
ten  chymists  all  agree  in  discovering  gold 
and  silver  in  it,  while  some  detected  traces 
of  other  metals,  would  there  be  any  harm 
in  the  ten  subscribing  a  declaration  regard- 
ing the  two  ingredients  which  they  all  alike 
had  ascertained,  leaving  it  to  the  rest  to 
send  forth  their  separate  statements  regard- 
ing those  additional  substances  which  they 
believed  to  be  also  present  ?  And  when 
the  question  is  asked,  "  What  saith  the 
Scripture  ?"    and    the    further   question  — 


THE   PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      77 

*'  What  doth  it  mean  by  these  sayings  ?" 
if  there  be  certain  paramount  doctrines 
which  we  all  alike  discover  in  these  say- 
ings, but  others  regarding  which  we  are  not 
absolutely  unanimous,  is  our  disagreement 
regarding  the  latter  sufficient  reason  for  not 
signing  a  joint  declaration  regarding  the  for- 
mer? The  Evangelical  Alliance  asks  no 
man  to  abandon  the  amplitude  of  his  de- 
nominational articles  ;  but  if  in  his  own 
more  copious  confession  he  has  already  in- 
cluded certain  vital  doctrines,  we  beg  his 
suffrage  in  the  general  testimony.  And 
should  he  belong  to  a  society  which  owns 
no  confession  but  the  Bible,  we  do  not  ask 
him  to  impose  our  basis  on  his  society  ;  but 
if  he  has  found  these  truths  in  his  bible, 
we  ask  him  to  join  his  name  to  ours  in  tel- 
ling the  world  that  these  things  are  so.  And 
thus,  in  some  form,  which  may  meet  the 
views  of  all,  we  hope  to  be  able  to  tell  the 
world  some  truths  of  surpassing  moment,  in 
•  which  we  are  all  agreed  ;  and  when  the 
7* 


78  ADDRESS   ON   BEHALF   OF 

Jew,  or  the  skeptic,  or  the  Romanist,  asks, 
*' What  is  evangelical  Christianity?"  we 
shall  find  in  our  basis  of  union  the  materi- 
als of  an  answer  —  the  manifesto  of  evan- 
geHcal  Christendom. 

But  even  though  no  doctrinal  statement 
were  prepared,  we  might  exhibit,  in  the 
cordiality  of  our  meetings,  in  the  prompti- 
tude of  our  sympathy,  in  the  simultaneous- 
ness  of  our  movements,  and  the  oneness  of 
our  aims,  such  a  spectacle  of  vital  and  in- 
ward identity  as  would  answer  every  pur- 
pose. We  do  not  wish  to  dogmatize  on 
the  best  means  of  accomphshingthe  object. 
We  would  rather  leave  it  to  the  thoughts 
and  prayers  of  the  church  meanwhile,  and 
to  the  Lord's  teaching  when  we  meet  next 
summer,  to  decide  the  most  excellent  way. 
We  are  content  to  mention  it  as  one  object 
of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  —  an  imbodi- 
ment,  or  visible  exhibition,  of  the  actual 
oneness  of  the  church  of  Christ. 

III.  The  third  object  of  the  proposed 
alliance  is,  to  adopt    united  measures  for 


THE   PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      79 

the  defence  and  extension  of  the  common 
Christianity. 

Even  now  there  are  many  antichrists. 
There  are  systems  which  make  the  sinner 
his  own  Saviour,  and  others  which  reserve 
what  the  Saviour  revealed,  and  shut  those 
Scriptures  which  he  bids  us  search.  And 
while  his  supremacy  is  rejected  by  a  law- 
less world  and  a  large  amount  of  licentious 
professorship,  every  office  of  our  blessed 
Lord  is  assailed  by  Socinianism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  by  Romanism  on  the  other. 
There  are  many  adversaries ;  and  it  is  time 
that  right-hearted  men  were  striving  to- 
gether in  the  defence  of  the  gospel.  To 
meet  the  insidious  infidelity  and  the  atheistic 
blasphemy  of  some  —  the  soul-deluding  su- 
perstition of  others — the  profligacy  and 
flagrant  immorality  of  many  more  —  to  meet 
the  endre  ungodliness  of  this  bible-burning, 
and  bible-wresting  age,  demands  the  united 
energies  of  all  to  whom  the  Bible  is  inspira- 
tion, and  the  Saviour  divine. 

The  victims  of  persecution  are,  in  many 


80  ADDKESS   ON  BEHALF    OF 

lands,  pining  away  unbefriended  and  forgot- 
ten ;  localities  which  bloomed  like  the  gar- 
den of  God  are  given  over  to  the  beast  of 
the  field  and  the  boar  of  the  forest;  the 
Lord's  day  is  losing  its  sacredness,  and 
usages  of  olden  piety  are  melting  in  the 
flood  of  a  furious  secularity  ;  while  the  re- 
ligious silence  of  our  more  decent  literature 
supplies  no  counteractive  to  the  grossness 
and  ribaldry  of  the  more  outrageous  press. 
Two  thirds  of  our  world's  population  have 
never  heard  the  Saviour's  name  ;  and  if  a 
majority  of  minds  enlightened  in  saving 
truth,  and  influenced  by  scriptural  motives, 
be  needful  to  constitute  a  Christian  com- 
munity, there  yet  exists  no  Christian  land. 
To  exalt  the  standard  of  personal  piety,  to 
retrieve  the  interests  of  public  morality,  to 
diff'use  through  Christendom  the  conviction 
that  no  member  shall  hereafter  suffer,  but 
all  the  members  shall  suffer  with  him — to 
stem  the  encroachments  of  superstition  and 
infidelity,  and  diff'use  the  light  and  joy  of 
the   gospel  —  in  objects  like  these  there  is 


THE   PKOPOSED  EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      81 

ample  room  for  division  of  labor  and  union 
of  effort.  Without  devouring  one  another, 
the  martial  spirits  among  us  may  find  out- 
let for  all  their  chivalry,  and  use  for  all  their 
logic,  in  fighting  the  battles  of  the  faith  ; 
and  those  whose  milder  dispositions  and 
less  athletic  mould  are  more  inclined  for 
peaceful  exercises,  may  find  abundant  scope 
in  the  angelic  errands  and  benignant  appli- 
cations of  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 

The  small  progress  and  scanty  triumphs 
of  that  gospel  are  not  owing  to  its  inherent 
weakness,  nor  to  the  fewness  of  its  friends. 
The  gospel  is  mighty.  The  truth  of  eternity 
—  the  power  of  God  is  in  it:  and  its  be- 
lievers are  many — perhaps  never  so  numer- 
ous as  now  ;  and  their  aggregate  resources 
are  immense.  It  is  astonishing,  when  you 
consider  the  amount  of  learning,  and  intel- 
lectual opulence,  and  social  influence — it 
is  delightful  to  recount  the  various  accom- 
plishments and  talents  which,  in  one  form 
or  another,  and  within  this  living  age,  have 
been  laid  at  the  Saviour's  feet.     And  while 


82  ADDRESS    ON    BEHALF    OF 

the  church  is  numerous  and  powerful,  there 
is  no  lack  of  zeal.  There  is  vitality,  and 
there  is  energy,  and  sometimes  stupendous 
exertion ;  but  the  misery  is  that  so  much 
of  it  is  zeal  misspent  —  that  so  much  of  it 
is  energy  devoted  to  mutual  destruction. 
The  elastic  vapor  which  murmurs  in  the 
earthquake,  or  explodes  in  the  mud-volcano, 
if  properly  secured  and  turned  on  in  the 
right  direction,  might  send  the  navy  of  an 
empire  all  round  the  world,  or  clothe  with 
plenty  an  industrious  realm.  And  the  zeal 
which  has  hhherto  rumbled  in  ecclesiastical 
earthquakes,  and  left  no  nobler  mementoes 
than  so  many  streaming  cones  —  so  many 
mud-craters,  on  the  sides  of  the  great  con- 
troversial Jorullo — if  rightly  directed,  might 
long  before  this  time  have  sent  the  gospel 
all  over  the  globe,  and  covered  a  rejoicing 
earth  with  the  fruits  of  righteousness.  The 
river  which  Ezekiel  saw  was  a  tiny  rill  when 
it  first  escaped  from  the  temple,  but  a  course 
of  a  thousand  cubits  made  it  ankle-deep, 
and  a  few  more  furlongs  saw  it  a  river  that 


THE  PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      83 

he  could  not  pass  over — the  waters  were 
waters  to  swim  in.  And  this  is  the  course 
of  the  gospel,  when  Christians  do  not  hin- 
der it. 

But  instead  of  clearing  the  common 
channel,  and  strengthening  the  main  em- 
bankments for  its  universal  and  world-glad- 
dening flow,  the  effort  hitherto  has  been  to 
divert  it  all  into  denominational  reservoirs. 
Each  one  has  gone  with  his  spade  and  his 
pickaxe  —  has  breached  the  grand  embank- 
ment, and  tried  to  tempt  the  mighty  stream 
into  his  own  more  orthodox  canal.  And 
the  consequence  of  these  sectarian  efforts — 
these  poor  attempts  to  monopolize  the  gos- 
pel— the  consequence  is,  that  like  a  certain 
river  in  the  southern  hemisphere,  which  has 
only  been  known  to  reach  the  ocean  once 
during  the  last  thirty  years — between  the 
scorching  secularity  overhead,  and  the  self- 
ish interruptions  of  the  stream,  it  is  only 
now  and  then  that  the  gospel  is  allowed  to 
flow  far  enough  to  fertilize  new  territory, 
and  gladden  weary  souls.     But  a  better  day 


84  ADDRESS    ON   BEHALF    OF 

is  coming,  and  in  these  movements  we  hail 
its  dawn.  Instead  of  monopolizing  or  di- 
viding the  stream  —  instead  of  breaking  its 
banks,  or  interrupting  its  course  —  our  in- 
dividual and  our  united  efforts  shall  here- 
after seek  to  clear  its  channel  and  deepen 
its  flow ;  and  the  work  of  our  different  de- 
nominations shall  be,  not  to  pierce  the  bank 
or  dig  diverting  canals,  but  each  to  strength- 
en the  enclosing  mounds,  and  remove  the 
interrupting  rocks  as  it  sweeps  alongside  of 
their  respective  territories.  Thus  acting, 
thus  seeking  not  our  own  things,  but  the 
things  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  shall  soon  behold 
the  little  stream  which  welled  up  at  Jerusa- 
lem eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  holding 
on  in  its  prosperous  course.  We  shall  see 
life  leaping  in  its  sunny  ripple,  and  a  joyful 
world  resorting  to  its  genial  current ;  we 
shall  see  one  fold  reposing  on  its  green 
margin,  and  beside  its  still  waters  one 
Shepherd  leading  them.  And  best  of  all, 
on  its  teeming  brink  we  shall  again  behold 
the  long-exotic  Tree  of  Life — its  laden 


THE   PROPOSED   EVANGELICAL    ALLIANCE.      85 

branches  mirrored  in  the  tranquil  tide,  and 
showering  on  the  azure  amplitudes  its  leaves 
of  heavenly  heahng.* 
November  25,  1845. 


*  The  address,  in  its  original  form,  concluded  with  some 
practical  suggestions,  which  are  now  superseded  by  the 
formation  of  the  Alliance. 

8 


RECOLLECTIONS 


REV.   R.    M.    M'CHEYNE 


Among  Christian  men  a  "  living  epistle," 
and  among  Christian  ministers,  an  "able 
evangelist,"  is  rare.  Mr.  M'Cheyne  was 
both  ;  and  for  the  benefit  of  our  readers, 
and  to  the  praise  of  that  grace  which  made 
him  to  differ,  we  would  record  a  few  par- 
ticulars regarding  one  of  whom  we  feel  it  no 
presumption  to  say,  that  he  was  "  a  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved." 

God  had  given  him  a  light  and  nimble 
form,  which  inclined  him,  in  boyish  days, 
for  feats  of  agihty,  and  enabled  him  in  more 
important  years  to  go  through  much  fatigue, 
till  the  mainspring  of  the  heart  was  weaken- 


THE  REV.   R.    M.   M'CHEYNE.  87 

ed  by  over-working  or  disease.  God  had 
also  given  him  a  mind  of  v«^hich  such  a 
frame  was  the  appropriate  receptacle  —  ac- 
tive, expedite,  full  of  enterprise,  untiring, 
and  ingenious.  He  had  a  kind  and  quiet 
eye,  which  found  out  the  living  and  beauti- 
ful in  nature,  rather  than  the  majestic  and 
sublime.  Withal  he  had  a  pensive  spirit, 
which  loved  to  muse  on  what  he  saw ;  and 
a  lively  fancy,  which  scattered  beauties  of 
its  own  on  what  was  already  fair ;  and  an 
idiom  which  expressed  all  his  feelings  ex- 
actly as  he  felt  them,  and  gave  simplicity 
and  grace  to  the  most  common  things  he 
uttered.  Besides,  he  had  a  delicate  sensi- 
bility, a  singularly  tender  manner,  and  an 
eminently  affectionate  heart.  These  are 
some  of  the  gifts  which  he  received  at  first 
from  God,  and  which  would  have  made 
him  an  interesting  character  though  the 
grace  of  God  had  never  given  more. 

He  was  born  at  Edinburgh  twenty-nine 
years  ago,  and  received  his  education  at  its 
high  school  and  its  college.     When  it  was 


88  KECOLLECTIONS    OF   THE 

that  the  most  important  of  all  changes  pass- 
ed upon  him,  we  do  not  know ;  but  the 
change  itself  is  described  in  some  stanzas 
on  "  Jehovah-Tsidkenu,"  which  strikingly 
describe  the  difference  between  the  emo- 
tions originating  in  a  fine  taste  or  tender 
feeling,  and  those  which  spring  from  pre- 
cious faith.  At  the  two  periods  of  its  history 
his  own  susceptible  mind  had  experienced 
either  class. 

He  was  only  one-and-twenty  when  he 
became  a  preacher  of  the  gospel ;  and  his 
first  field  of  labor  was  Larbert,  near  Fal- 
kirk, where  he  was  assistant-minister  about 
a  year.  That  was  the  halcyon  day  of  the 
Scotch  establishment,  before  the  civil  power 
had  laid  its  arrest  on  the  energies  of  the 
church  and  the  hopes  of  the  people.  In 
every  populous  or  neglected  district  new 
places  of  worship  were  springing  up,  with  a 
rapidity  which  made  gray-haired  fathers 
weep  for  joy,  thinking  the  glory  of  our 
second  temple  would  surpass  the  glory  of 
the  first,  and  which  promised  in  another 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE. 


generation  to  make  Scotland  a  delightsome 
land  again.  Among  the  rest  a  new  church 
was  built  to  the  westward  of  Dundee  —  a 
district  which  combines  almost  everything 
desirable  in  a  parish  —  not  a  few  of  the  more 
intelligent  and  influential  citizens  in  the  near 
neighborhood  of  its  industrious  artisans, 
while  the  flax-spinners  of  one  locality  are 
balanced  by  the  almost  rural  population  of 
another.  The  church  was  no  sooner  open- 
ed than  it  was  fully  occupied ;  and  in  se- 
lecting a  minister,  Mr.  M'Cheyne  was  the 
choice  of  a  unanimous  congregation.  He 
entered  on  his  labors  in  St.  Peter's,  Nov. 
27,  1836 ;  and,  as  an  earnest  of  coming 
usefulness,  his  first  sermon  was  blessed  to 
the  salvation  of  some  souls.  When  he  be- 
came more  minutely  acquainted  with  his 
people,  he  found  a  few  that  feared  the  Lord 
and  called  upon  his  name ;  but  the  great 
mass  of  his  congregation  were  mere  church- 
goers— under  a  form  of  godUness  exhibiting 
little  evidence  of  being  new  creatures  in 
Christ ;  while  he  found  throughout  his 
8* 


"90  RECOLLECTIONS   OF    THE 

parish  such  an  amount  of  dissipation,  and 
irreverence,  and  sabbath-breaking,  as  plainly 
told  that  it  was  long  since  Willison  had 
ceased  from  his  labors.  The  state  of  his 
people  pressed  the  spirit  of  this  man  of  God, 
and  put  him  on  exertions  which  were  not 
too  great  for  the  emergency,  but  which  were 
far  beyond  his  strength.  He  knew  that 
nothing  short  of  a  living  union  to  the  second 
Adam  could  save  from  eternal  death ;  and 
he  also  knew  that  nothing  short  of  a  new 
character  would  indicate  this  new  relation. 
He  was  often  in  an  agony  till  he  should  see 
Christ  formed  in  the  hearts  of  his  people  ; 
and  all  the  fertility  of  his  mind  was  expended 
in  efforts  to  present  Christ  and  his  righte- 
ousness in  an  aspect  likely  to  arrest  or 
allure  them.  Like  Moses,  he  spent  much 
time  in  crying  mightily  to  God  in  their  be- 
half; and  when  he  came  out  to  meet  them, 
the  pathos  of  Jeremiah  and  the  benignity 
of  John  were  strugghng  in  his  bosom,  and 
flitting  over  his  transparent  countenance  by 
turns  ;  and  though  he  had  much  success, 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE.  91 

he  had  not  all  he  wished,  for  he  had  not  all 
his  people.  Many  melted  and  were  frozen 
up  again  ;  and  many  sat  and  listened  to  this 
ambassador  of  Christ  spending  his  vital 
energies  in  beseeching  them,  as  if  he  him- 
self were  merely  an  interesting  study  —  a 
phenomenon  of  earnestness.  The  vehe- 
mence of  his  desire  and  the  intensity  of  his 
exertions  destroyed  his  strength.  It  seemed 
as  if  the  golden  bowl  were  about  to  break ; 
and,  after  two  years'  labor,  a  palpitation  of 
the  heart  constrained  him  to  desist. 

Each  step  of  a  good  man  is  ordered  by 
the  Lord.  This  "step"  —  the  sickness 
of  Mr.  M'Cheyne  —  led  to  the  visit  of  our 
deputation  to  Palestine,  and  gave  a  great 
impulse  to  that  concern  for  Israel  which  is 
now  a  characteristic  of  Scottish  Christianity  ; 
and  the  temporary  loss  of  their  pastor  was 
the  infinite  gain  of  St.  Peter's  church. 
When,  after  twelve  months'  separation,  Mr. 
M'Cheyne  returned,  it  was  like  a  husband- 
man who  has  lain  down  lamenting  that  the 
heavens    are   brass,    and    awakes   amid   a 


92  RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE 

plenteous  rain.  During  his  absence  a  sin- 
gular outpouring  of  the  Spirit  had  come 
down  on  his  parish,  and  the  ministry  of  his 
substitute  was  the  means  of  a  remarkable 
revival.  Mr.  M'Cheyne  came  back  to  find 
a  great  concern  for  salvation  pervading  his 
flock,  and  many,  whose  carelessness  had 
cost  him  bitter  tears,  "cleaving  to  the  Lord 
with  full  purpose  of  heart."  We  remember 
the  Thursday  evening  when  he  first  met 
his  people  again  ;  the  solemnity  of  his  re- 
appearance in  that  pulpit,  like  one  alive 
from  the  dead  ;  his  touching  address,  so 
true — "And  I,  brethren,  when  1  came  to 
you,  came  not  with  excellency  of  speech;" 
and  the  overwhelming  greeting  which  await- 
ed him  in  the  crowded  street  when  the 
service  was  done  —  many,  who  had  almost 
hated  his  ministry  before,  now  pressing  near 
to  bless  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 
From  that  time  forward,  with  such  discour- 
agements as  the  impenitence  of  the  ungod- 
ly, the  inconsistency  of  doubtful  professors, 
and  the  waywardness  of  real  disciples,  oc- 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE.  93 

casionally  caused  him,  his  labors  were  won- 
derfully lightened.  The  presence  of  God 
was  never  wholly  withdrawn  ;  and  besides 
some  joyful  communion-feasts,  and  several 
hallowed  seasons  of  special  prayer,  almost 
every  sabbath  brought  its  blessing.  St. 
Peter's  enjoyed  a  perennial  awakening,  a 
constant  revival ;  and  the  effect  was  very 
manifest.  We  do  not  say  that  the  whole 
congregation  or  the  whole  parish  shared 
it.  Far  from  it.  But  an  unusual  num- 
ber adorned  the  doctrine  ;  and  it  was  in- 
teresting on  a  sabbath  afternoon  to  see 
as  you  passed  along  the  street,  so  many 
of  the  working  people  keeping  holy  the 
sabbath,  often  sitting,  for  the  full  benefit  of 
the  fading  light,  with  their  bible  or  other 
book  at  the  windows  of  their  houses  ;  and 
it  was  pleasant  to  think  how  many  of  these 
houses  contained  their  pious  inmates  or 
praying  famihes.  But  it  was  in  the  church 
itself  that  you  felt  all  the  peculiarity  of  the 
place ;  and  after  being  used  to  its  heart- 
tuned    melodies,    its    deep    devotion,   and 


94  RECOLLECTIONS    OF    THE 

solemn  assemblies,  and  knowing  how  many 
souls  had  there  been  born  to  God,  we  own 
that  we  never  came  in  sight  of  St.  Peter's 
spire  without  feeling  "  God  is  there  ;"  and 
to  this  hour  memory  refuses  to  let  go, 
wrapped  round  in  heavenly  associations, 
the  well-known  chime  of  its  gathering  bell, 
the  joyful  burst  of  its  parting  psalm,  and, 
above  all,  that  tender,  pensive  voice,  which 
was  to  many  "  as  though  an  angel  spake  to 
them."  On  sabbath,  March  12,  he  met 
his  people  for  the  last  time.  He  felt  weak, 
though  his  hearers  were  not  aware  of  it. 
On  the  Tuesday  following,  some  ministerial 
duty  called  him  out ;  and,  feeling  very  ill 
on  his  way  home,  he  asked  a  friend  to  ful- 
fil an  engagement  for  him,  which  he  had 
undertaken  for  the  subsequent  day.  He 
also  begged  his  medical  attendant  to  follow 
him  home ;  and,  on  reaching  his  house,  he 
set  it  in  order,  arranging  his  affairs,  and 
then  lay  down  on  that  bed  from  which  he 
was  never  to  arise.  It  was  soon  ascertained 
that,  in  visiting  some  people  sick  of  the  fe- 


EEV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE,  95 

ver,  he  had  caught  the  infection  ;  and  it  was 
not  long  till  the  violence  of  the  malady  dis- 
turbed a  mind  unusually  serene.  At  the 
outset  of  his  trouble  he  seemed  depressed, 
and  once  begged  to  be  left  alone  for  half  an 
hour.  When  the  attendant  returned,  he 
looked  relieved  and  happy,  and  said,  with 
a  smile  — "  My  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird 
out  of  the  snare  of  a  fowler ;"  and  thence- 
forward, till  his  mind  began  to  wander,  he 
was  in  perfect  peace.  During  those  last 
painful  days  of  unconsciousness,  he  fancied 
he  was  engaged  in  his  beloved  work  of 
preaching,  and  at  other  times  prayed  in  a 
most  touching  manner,  and  at  great  length, 
for  his  people.  His  people  were  also  pray- 
ing for  him  :  and  on  the  evening  of  Friday 
se'nnight,  when  it  became  known  that  his 
life  was  in  danger,  a  weeping  multitude  as- 
sembled in  St.  Peter's,  and  with  difficulty 
were  dissuaded  from  continuing  all  night  in 
supplication  for  him.  Next  morning,  he 
seemed  a  litde  revived  ;  but  it  was  only  the 
gleam  before  the  candle  goes  out.     At  a 


96  EECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE 

quarter  past  nine  he  expired  ;  and  all  that 
day  nothing  was  to  be  heard  in  the  houses 
around  but  lamentation  and  great  mourning, 
and,  as  a  friend  in  that  neighborhood  writes, 
*'  In  passing  along  the  high  road,  you  saw 
the  faces  of  every  one  swollen  with  weep- 
ing." On  Thursday  last,  his  hallowed  re- 
mains were  laid  in  St.  Peter's  burying- 
ground,  their  proper  resting-place  till  these 
heavens  pass  away. 

If  asked  to  mention  the  source  of  his 
abundant  labors,  as  well  as  the  secret  of  his 
holy,  happy,  and  successful  life,  we  would 
answer,  "  His  faith  was  wonderful."  Be- 
ing rationally  convinced  on  all  those  points 
regarding  which  reason  can  form  conclu- 
sions, and  led  by  the  Spirit  into  those  as- 
surances which  lie  beyond  the  attainment 
of  mere  reason,  he  surrendered  himself  fully 
to  the  power  of  these  ascertained  realities. 
The  redemption  which  has  already  been 
achieved,  and  the  glory  which  is  yet  to  be 
unveiled,  were  as  familiar  to  his  daily  con- 
victions as  the  events  of  personal  history  ; 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHEYNE.  07 

and  he  reposed  with  as  undoubting  confi- 
dence on  the  revealed  love  of  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Spirit,  as  ever  he  rested  on  the 
long-tried  affection  of  his  dearest  earthly- 
kindred.  With  the  simplicity  of  a  little 
child,  he  had  received  the  kingdom  of  heav- 
en ;  and,  strengthened  mightily  by  experi- 
ence and  the  Spirit's  indwelling,  he  held 
fast  that  which  he  had  received. 

A  striking  characteristic  of  his  piety  was 
absorbing  love  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  This 
was  his  ruling  passion.  It  lightened  all  his 
labors,  and  made  the  reproaches  which  for 
Christ's  sake  sometimes  fell  on  him,  by 
identifying  him  more  and  more  with  his  suf- 
fering Lord,  unspeakably  precious.  He 
cared  for  no  question  unless  his  Master 
cared  for  it ;  and  his  main  anxiety  was  to 
know  the  mind  of  Christ.  He  once  told  a 
friend,  "  I  bless  God  every  morning  I  awake 
that  I  live  in  witnessing  times."  And  in  a 
letter  six  months  ago  he  says,  "  I  fear  lest 
the  enemy  should  so  contrive  his  measures 
in  Scotland  as  to  divide  the  godly.     May 


98  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  THE 

God  make  our  way  plain  !  It  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  suffer,  when  we  see  clearly 
that  we  are  suffering  members  of  Jesus." 
His  public  actings  were  a  direct  emanation 
from  this  most  heavenly  ingredient  in  his 
character — his  love  and  gratitude  to  the 
Divine  Redeemer.  In  this  he  much  re- 
sembled one  whose  "  Letters"  were  almost 
daily  his  delight — Samuel  Rutherford  ;  and, 
like  Rutherford,  his  adoring  contemplations 
naturally  gathered  round  them  the  imagery 
and  language  of  the  Song  of  Solomon.  In- 
deed, he  had  preached  so  often  on  that 
beautiful  book,  that  at  last  he  had  scarcely 
left  himself  a  single  text  of  its  "  good  mat- 
ter" which  had  not  been  discoursed  on  al- 
ready. It  was  very  observable  that,  though 
his  deepest  and  finest  feelings  clothed  them- 
selves in  fitting  words,  with  scarcely  any  ef- 
fort, when  he  was  descanting  on  the  glory 
or  grace  of  the  Saviour,  he  despaired  of 
transferring  to  other  minds  the  emotions 
which  were  overfilling  his  own  ;  and  after 
describing  those  excellencies  which  often 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE.  99 

made  the  careless  wistful,  and  made  disci- 
ples marvel,  he  left  the  theme  with  evident 
regret  that,  where  he  saw  so  much,  he  could 
say  so  little.  And  so  rapidly  did  he  ad- 
vance in  scriptural  and  experimental  ac- 
quaintance with  Christ,  that  it  was  like  one 
friend  learning  more  of  the  mind  of  anoth- 
er. And  we  doubt  not  that,  when  his  hid- 
den life  is  revealed,  it  will  be  found  that  his 
progressive  holiness  and  usefulness  coinci- 
ded with  those  new  aspects  of  endearment 
or  majesty  which,  from  time  to  time,  he  be- 
held in  the  face  of  Immanuel,  just  as  the 
"  authority"  of  his  "  gracious  words,"  and 
the  impressive  sanctity  of  his  demeanor, 
were  so  far  a  transference  from  Him  who 
spake  as  no  man  ever  spake,  and  lived  as 
no  man  ever  lived.  In  his  case  the  words 
had  palpable  meaning ;  "  Beholding  as  in  a 
glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  we  are  changed 
into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  as 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord." 

More  than  any  one  whom  we  have  ever 
known,  had  he  learned  to  do  everything  in 


100  RECOLLECTIONS    OF   THE 

the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.     Amid  all  his 
humility,  and  it  was  very  deep,  he  had  a 
prevailing  consciousness  that  he  was  one 
of  those  who  belong  to  Christ ;  and  it  was 
from  him,  his  living  head,  that  he  sought 
strength    for    the    discharge   of  duty,   and 
through    him,    his    righteousness,   that    he 
sought  the  acceptance  of  his  performances. 
The  effect  was,  to  impart  habitual  tranquil- 
lity and  composure  to  his  spirit.     He  com- 
mitted his  ways  to  the  Lord,  and  was  sure 
that  they  would  be  brought  to  pass ;   and 
though  his  engagements  were  often  numer- 
ous  and  pressing,  he  was   enabled  to   go 
through  them  without  hurry  or  perturbation. 
We  can  discern  traces  of  this  uniform  self- 
possession  in   a  matter  so   minute  as   his 
handwriting.     His  most  rapid  notes  show 
no  symptoms  of  haste  or  busde,  but  end  in 
the  same  neat  and  regular  style  in  which 
they  began  ;  and  this  quietness  of  spirit  ac- 
companied him  into  the  most  arduous  la- 
bors and  critical  emergencies.     His  effort 
was  to  do  all  in  the  surety  ;  and  he  proved 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE.  101 

that  promise  — "  Great  peace  have  they 
which  love  thy  law,  and  nothing  shall  offend 
them." 

He  gave  himself  to  prayer.  Like  his 
blessed  Master,  he  often  rose  up  a  great 
while  before  it  was  day,  and  spent  the  time 
in  prayer,  and  singing  psalms  and  hymns, 
and  the  devotional  reading  of  that  Word 
which  dwelt  so  richly  in  him.  His  walks, 
and  rides,  and  journeys,  were  sanctified  by 
prayer.  The  last  time  he  was  leaving  Lon- 
don we  accompanied  him  to  the  railway- 
station.  He  chose  a  place  in  an  empty 
carriage,  hoping  to  employ  the  day  in  his 
beloved  exercise  ;  but  the  arrival  of  other 
passengers  invaded  his  retirement.  There 
was  nothing  which  he  liked  so  much  as  to 
go  out  into  a  solitary  place  and  pray  ;  and 
the  ruined  chapel  of  Invergowrie,  and  many 
other  sequestered  spots  around  Dundee, 
were  the  much-loved  resorts  where  he  had 
often  enjoyed  sweet  communion  with  God. 
Seldom  have  we  known  one  so  specific  and 
yet  reverential  in  his  prayers,  nor  one  whose 
9* 


102  RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE 

confessions  of  sin  united  such  self-loathing 
with  such  filial  love.  And  now  that  *'  Mo- 
ses, my  servant,  is  dead,"  perhaps  the  heav- 
iest loss  to  his  brethren,  his  people,  and  the 
land,  is  the  loss  of  his  intercessions. 

He  was  continually  about  his  Master's 
business.  He  used  to  seal  his  letters  with 
a  sun  going  down  behind  the  mountains, 
and  the  motto  over  it,  "  The  night  cometh." 
He  felt  that  the  time  was  short,  and  studi- 
ously sought  to  deepen  this  impression  on 
his  mind.  To  solemnize  his  spirit  for  the 
sabbath's  services,  he  would  visit  some  of 
his  sick  or  dying  hearers  on  the  Saturday 
afternoon  ;  for,  as  he  himself  once  expressed 
it  to  the  writer,  *'  Before  preaching  he  liked 
to  look  over  the  verge."  Having  in  him- 
self a  monitor  that  his  own  sun  would  go 
early  down,  he  worked  while  it  was  day  ; 
and,  in  his  avidity  to  improve  every  oppor- 
tunity, frequently  brought  on  attacks  of  dan- 
gerous illness.  The  autumn  after  his  re- 
turn from  Palestine,  many  of  his  hearers 
were  in  an  anxious  state ;  and  on  the  sab- 


REV.   R.   M.   M'CHETNE.  103 

bath  before  the  laboring  people  among  them 
set  out  for  the  harvest-work  in  the  country, 
like  Paul  at  Troas,  he  could  not  desist  from 
addressing  them  and  praying  with  them. 
In  one  way  or  other,  from  morning  to  mid- 
night, with  scarcely  a  moment's  interval,  he 
was  exhorting,  and  warning,  and  comfort- 
ing them  ;  and  the  consequence  was,  an  at- 
tack of  fever,  which  brought  him  very  low. 
But  it  was  not  only  in  preaching  that  he 
was  thus  faithful  and  importunate.  He  was 
instant  in  every  season.  In  the  houses  of 
his  people,  and  when  he  met  them  by  the 
wayside,  he  would  speak  a  kind  and  ear- 
nest word  about  their  souls ;  and  his  words 
were  like  nails.  They  went  in  with  such 
force,  that  they  usually  fastened  in  a  sure 
place.  An  instance  came  to  our  knowl- 
edge long  ago.  In  the  course  of  a  ride  one 
day,  he  was  observing  the  operations  of  the 
workmen  in  a  quarry  ;  when  passing  the  en- 
gine-house, he  stopped  for  a  moment  to  look 
at  it.  The  engine-man  had  just  opened  the 
furnace-door  to   feed   it  with   fresh   fuel ; 


104  RECOLLECTIONS    OF   THE 

when,  gazing  at  the  bright,  white  glow  with- 
in, Mr.  M'Cheyne  said  to  the  man,  in  his 
own  mild  way,  "  Does  that  fire  mind  you 
of  anything?"  And  he  said  no  more,  but 
passed  on  his  way.  The  man  had  been 
very  careless,  but  could  not  get  rid  of  this 
solemn  question.  To  him  it  was  the  Spir- 
it's arrow.  He  had  no  rest  till  he  found  his 
way  to  St.  Peter's  church,  where  he  became 
a  constant  attendant ;  and  we  would  fain 
hope  that  he  has  now  fled  from  the  wrath 
to  come.  His  speech  was  seasoned  with 
salt,  and  so  were  his  letters.  As  was  truly 
remarked  in  the  discriminating  and  affec- 
tionate tribute  to  his  memory,  which  recently 
appeared  in  the  "Dundee  Warder,"  "Ev- 
ery note  from  his  hand  had  a  lasting  inter- 
est about  it ;  for  his  mind  was  so  full  of 
Christ  that,  even  in  writing  about  the  most 
ordinary  affairs,  he  contrived,  by  some  nat- 
ural turn,  to  introduce  the  glorious  subject 
that  was  always  uppermost  with  him."  It 
was  always  quickening  to  hear  from  him.  It 
was  like  climbing  a  hill,  and,  when  weary  or 


REV.    R.   M.   M'CHEYNE.  105 

lagging,  hearing  the  voice  of  a  friend,  vsrho 
has  got  far  up  on  the  sunny  heights,  calling 
to  you  to  arise  and  come  away.  The  very 
subscriptions  usually  told  where  his  treasure 
was:  "  Grace  be  with  you,  as  Samuel  Ruth- 
erford would  have  prayed  ;"  "  Ever  yours 
till  we  meet  above  ;"  "Ever  yours  till  glory 
dawn,  Robert  M.  M'Cheyne." 

The  tenderness  of  his  conscience — the 
truthfulness  of  his  character — his  deadness 
to  the  world  —  his  deep  humility  and  exalt- 
ed devotion  —  his  consuming  love  to  Christ, 
and  the  painful  solicitude  with  which  he 
eyed  everything  affecting  his  honor  —  the 
fidelity  with  which  he  denied  himself,  and 
told  others  of  their  faults  or  danger — his 
meekness  in  bearing  wrong,  and  his  unwea- 
ried industry  in  doing  good — the  mildness 
which  tempered  his  unyielding  firmness, 
and  the  jealousy  for  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
which  commanded,  but  did  not  supplant, 
the  yearnings  of  a  most  affectionate  heart  — 
rendered  him  altogether  one  of  the  loveli- 
est specimen's  of  the  Spirit's  workmanship. 


106  RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE 

He  is  gone,  and  in  his  grave' has  been  bu- 
ried the  sermon  which  for  the  last  six  years 
his  mere  presence  has  preached  to  Dundee. 
That  countenance,  so  kindly  earnest ;  those 
gleams  of  holy  joy  flitting  over  its  deeper 
lines  of  sadness  ;  that  disentangled  pilgrim- 
look,  which  showed  plainly  that  he  sought 
a  city  ;  the  serene  self-possession  of  one 
who  walked  by  faith,  and  the  sequestered, 
musing  gait,  such  as  we  might  suppose  the 
meditative  Isaac  had  ;  that  aspect  of  com- 
passion in  such  unison  with  the  remonstra- 
ting and  entreating  tones  of  his  melodious 
voice  ;  that  entire  appearance  as  of  one  who 
had  been  with  Jesus,  and  who  would  never 
be  right  at  home  till  where  Christ  is  there 
he  should  be  also :  all  these  come  back  on 
memory  with  a  vividness  which  annihilates 
the  interval  since  last  we  saw  them,  and 
with  an  air  of  immortahty  around  them 
which  promises  that  ere  long  we  shall  see 
them  again.  To  enjoy  his  friendship  was  a 
rare  privilege  in  this  world  of  defect  and 
sin ;  and  now  that  those  blessed  hours  of 


REV.    R.    M.    M'CHEYNE.  107 

personal  intercourse  are  ended,  we  can  re- 
call many  texts  of  which  his  daily  walk  was 
the  easy  interpretation.  Any  one  may  have 
a  clearer  conception  of  what  is  meant  by  a 
**  hidden  life,"  and  a  '*  living  sacrifice,"  and 
may  better  understand  the  kind  of  life  which 
Enoch  led,  who  has  lived  a  day  with  Rob- 
ert Murray  M*Cheyne. 

April  3,  1843. 


THE    BLESSINGS   OF    THE    GOSPEL: 

A  LECTURE 

INTRODUCTORY    TO 

A  COURSE   OF   PASTORAL   THEOLOGY. 

DELIVERED   IN   THE    ENGLISH   PRESBYTERIAN   COLLEGE, 
NOVEMBER   12,   1844. 


Gentlemen  :  There  never  was  a  period 
richer  in  the  bequests  of  its  predecessors, 
or  more  resdess  in  the  consciousness  of  un- 
developed power,  than  the  period  on  which 
your  lot  is  cast.  The  sciences  are  ail 
teeming  with  so  many  new  results,  that  even 
those  which  keep  their  old  names  have 
wholly  changed  their  character.  It  matters 
little  which  way  you  turn  your  eyes  — 
wealth  of  observation  and  brilliance  of  dis- 
covery on  every  side  encounter  you.     Be- 


BLESSINGS   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  109 

ginning  with  the  most  stupendous,  and, 
perhaps,  most  primitive  of  all  the  sciences, 
what  a  revolution  has  befallen  astronomy 
since  the  wise  men  of  the  east  first  watched 
the  sparkling  heavens  !  An  instrument  of 
which  they  never  dreamed  has  revealed 
neighbor  worlds  in  our  system,  and  dis- 
persed into  myriads  of  blazing  suns  those 
films  of  vagueness,  those  ghosts  of  light, 
scarce  known  to  them  as  galaxies  and  neb- 
ulae. And  while  that  instrument  suggests 
the  thought,  that  immensity  may  yet  contain 
systems  whose  messenger  rays  have  not  had 
time  to  bring  us  news  of  their  creation,  and 
is  at  this  very  moment  endeavoring  to 
telegraph  across  the  silent  abyss  of  space 
tidings  from  other  worlds  —  a  balance,  of 
which  these  ancients  had  no  idea,  has 
weighed  each  measured  orb,  and  a  calculus 
unknown  to  them  has  predicted  their  minu- 
test movements  for  all  time  to  come,  and 
shown  that,  in  all  their  intricate  and  tortuous 
paths,  they  can  never  err,  nor  ever  stop,  till 
the  voice  of  the  Eternal  bid  them.  Return- 
10 


110  THE   BLESSINGS 

ing  to  our  earth,  what  strange  traditions  of 
forgotten  times  do  we  read  on  its  rocky 
tablets !  How  suddenly  have  its  stones  be- 
gun to  cry  aloud  !  and  what  unexpected 
stories  of  creative  wisdom  and  munificence, 
antedating  the  birth  of  man,  have  been  heard 
from  the  sepulchre  of  worlds  which  long 
since  ceased  to  be !  Descending  into  the 
arcana  of  that  great  laboratory,  whence  the 
materials  of  each  organic  form  are  supplied 
in  countless  combinations  and  unerring  pro- 
portions, what  a  change  since  the  day  when 
philosophy  reckoned  earth,  air,  fire,  and  wa- 
ter, as  the  only  elements!  And  ascending 
again  to  organized  existence,  how  has  the  field 
of  observation  widened  since  the  time  when 
one  sage  could  speak  of  all  the  plants,  from 
the  cedar  to  the  hyssop,  and  knew  all  that 
could  then  be  known  of  beasts,  of  fowls, 
and  of  fishes  ! 

And  what  makes  our  age  so  wonderful, 
is  the  simultaneousness  of  all  sorts  of  dis- 
coveries. While  the  telescope  of  Herschel 
was  revealing  new  worlds,  the  miscroscope 


OF    THE    GOSPEL.  Ill 

of  Ehrenberg  was  investigating  a  new  ani- 
mal kingdom  in  a  drop  of  putrid  water; 
and  while  tiie  analytic  prowess  of  Lagrange 
was  demonstrating  the  perpetuity  of  the 
solar  system,  the  sagacity  of  Dalton  was 
bringing  the  elementary  atoms  of  each  sim- 
ple substance  under  the  dominion  of  mathe- 
matical laws.  And  at  the  same  time  that  the 
potent  agencies  of  light,  and  heat,  and  elec- 
tricity, were  disclosing  the  secret  structure 
of  substances  the  most  recondite  and  enig- 
matical, these  subtile  agencies  have  in  their 
own  turn  been  subjected  to  a  question  as 
successful  as  ingenious  ;  and  what  the  sa- 
gacity of  Franklin,  and  Volta,  and  OErsted, 
has  done  for  electricity,  and  what  the  in- 
tuitive wisdom  of  Black,  and  the  poetic 
ardor  of  Leslie,  and  the  careful  experiments 
of  Dulong  and  Petit  have  done  for  heat, 
the  elegant  expedients,  the  mathematical 
resources,  and  the  inductive  minds  of 
Young,  and  Brewster,  and  Arago,  have 
done  for  hght,  detecting  new  and  surprising 
properties,   or  bringing  properties  already 


112  THE   BLESSIN&S 

known  to  arrange  themselves  under  the 
raost  beautiful  principles.  Lavoisier's  de- 
composition of  air  and  water  into  their  un- 
suspected elements  ;  the  publication  of  the 
atomic  theory  in  the  "Manchester  Me- 
moirs;" the  dazzling  experiments  of  Davy, 
which  proved  that  our  globe  is  but  a  mass 
of  metallic  oxydes,  and  a  large  portion  of 
our  bodily  framework  nothing  more;  Fara- 
day's brilliant  researches,  to  demonstrate 
that  the  mysterious  force  which  holds  a  par- 
ticle of  oxygen  and  a  particle  of  iron  to- 
gether in  chymic  union  is  the  same  which 
trembles  in  the  magnet,  sweeps  in  the  light- 
ning, and  roars  in  the  conflagration ;  Lie- 
big's  investigations  in  the  substances  of 
which  living  organs  are  composed,  and  which 
have  rendered  the  laboratory  of  Giessen  the 
metropolis  of  a  new  science,  by  which  it  is 
hard  to  say  whether  medicine  or  agriculture 
will  profit  most ;  Cross's  processes  in  his 
conjuring  cave  at  Bristol,  by  which  he  can 
manufacture  the  most  costly  gems  —  good 
as  nature's  own  —  from  bits  of  flint,  or  coal. 


OF    THE    GOSPEL.  113 

or  clay  —  all  these,  and  many  more,  have 
rushed,  one  after  another,  with  such  exciting 
rapidity,  that  in  the  impetuosity  of  fresh 
enterprise,  and  in  the  quest  of  new  revela- 
tions, chymistry  has  not  time  to  admire  her 
own  discoveries.  Under  the  blowpipe  of 
Berzelius,  and  the  goniometer  of  Wollaston, 
in  the  diligent  hands  of  Klaproth,  and  Mohs, 
and  Hauy,  and  Jameson,  and  Thomson, 
mineralogy,  from  a  confused  handful  of 
ores,  and  spars,  and  pebbles,  in  a  dusty 
cupboard,  has  grown  up  to  a  graceful  fane 
of  goodliest  stones  and  fairest  hues  —  a 
science  as  elegant  as  it  is  well  defined. 
How  Father  Linnaeus  would  rub  his  in- 
credulous eyes,  could  he  see  the  comely 
stature  to  which  his  favorite  Flora,  his 
"  amabilis  scientia,"  has  attained  in  the 
fostering  hands,  and  under  the  faithful  tutor- 
ship of  Jussieu,  and  Smith,  and  Decandolle, 
and  Hooker  —  too  tall  a  pet  to  dandle  now. 
And  entomology  —  its  hawking  eye  has 
hunted  out  as  many  sorts  of  bees,  for  in- 
stance, or  butterflies,  as  people  once  im- 
10* 


114  THE  BLESSINGS 

agined  there  were  of  insects  put  altogether ; 
and  while  the  dissecting  needle  of  Bonnet 
has  shown  the  resources  which  Infinite  Skill 
has  lavished  in  making  one  caterpillar  com- 
plete and  comfortable,  the  arranging  eye  and 
busy  fingers  of  Latreille,  and  Kirby,  and 
Burmeister  have  shown  that  it  takes  nearly 
half  a  million  different  sorts  of  these  forgot- 
ten minims  to  fill  up  the  Creator's  scheme, 
and  give  each  plant  its  appropriate  tenants 
and  each  animal  its  congenial  food.  Time 
would  fail  to  tell  the  labors  of  Cuvier,  and 
Owen,  and  Fleming,  in  Comparative  Anato- 
my—  the  toils  which  in  some  departments 
have  left  the  zoologist  little  more  to  do. 
And  though  it  might  be  pleasant  to  ramble 
with  Wilson,  and  Audubon,  and  Charles 
Bonaparte,  among  the  woods  and  waters 
of  the  western  wilderness  ;  or  to  visit,  with 
Goold,  the  quaint  old-fashioned  birds  of 
New  Holland ;  or  take  a  turn  with  Lamarck 
in  his  grotto  of  shells,  or  with  Ellis  in  his 
coral  cave  ;  or  grope  with  Buckland  and 
Lyell,  Brogniart  and  Agassiz,  with  Murchi- 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  115 

son  and  Miller,  through  the  steaming  forests, 
the  muddy  seas,  and  chaos-lighted  fields  of 
a  world  before  our  own  —  we  forbear.  We 
are  content  to  say  again  —  what  it  would 
take  too  long  time  to  prove  by  enumeration 
—  there  never  was  a  time  when  science 
was  more  wealthy,  or  the  stimulated  mind 
of  man  more  certain  of  discovering  yet 
greater  things. 

And  it  is  our  great  advantage  to  Hve  in 
this  age  of  clear-seeing  and  clever-working. 
Now  that  London  is  the  city,  and  all  Eng- 
land the  suburb  —  now  that  the  brother  in 
New  York  is  nearer  than  the  brother  in  Edin- 
burgh once  was  —  every  urgent  letter  that 
twinkles  from  the  land's  end  to  the  capital, 
and  every  anxious  journey  by  which  you 
dart  like  a  volition  to  the  distant  scene  of 
danger,  is  a  gift  from  science,  a  favor  done 
you  by  James  Watt,  the  Glasgow  engineer. 
The  invalid  who  recovers  from  diseases 
once  deemed  fatal,  or,  instead  of  the  rough 
and  torturing  remedies  of  a  ruder  age,  finds 
health  and  vigor  charmed  back  by  the  gen- 


ne  THE   BLESSINGS 

tie  treatment  and  elegant  prescriptions  of 
modern  pharmacy,  owes  something  to  phys- 
iology and  modern  chymistry — just  as  the 
man  who  escapes  entirely  the  most  dismal 
of  diseases,  may  bless  the  memory  of  Her- 
bert Jenner.  The  sailor  who  can  traverse  ten 
thousand  miles  of  ocean  with  gay  security, 
owes  his  steady  track  to  a  science  of  which 
he  possibly  never  heard  the  name  —  is 
guided  to  his  haven  by  an  Italian  philoso- 
pher, who  has  been  in  his  grave  200  years. 
The  student  who,  for  a  few  sovereigns,  can 
surround  himself  with  a  store  of  books, 
such  as  it  would  once  have  needed  the 
fortune  of  Moecenas  or  Ptolemy  to  purchase, 
is  much  indebted  to  the  man  who  first  made 
paper,  and  to  that  other  man  who  first  print- 
ed on  it.  Gentlemen,  I  trust  that  your  faith 
is  too  firm  to  fear  any  of  the  sciences,  and 
that  your  minds  are  sufficiently  expanded 
to  love  them  all.  I  trust  that  you  will  ever 
be  ready  to  "  give  honor  to  whom  honor  is 
due,"  and  to  acknowledge  your  obligations 
to  living  wisdom  as  well  as  to  departed 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  117 

genius.  I  hope  that  you  feel  that  "  the 
lines  have  fallen  to  you  in  pleasant  places," 
when  your  lot  was  cast  on  this  opulent  age, 
with  its  quick-running  knowledge,  its  count- 
less accommodations,  its  unprecedented 
discoveries,  and  its  vigorous  mind.  And 
I  am  sure  I  wish  you  joy  of  your  own  high 
calling,  destined  in  such  an  age  to  study 
and  extend  a  science  nobler  than  them  all. 
I  congratulate  you  who  are  now  preparing 
to  issue  forth  on  the  busiest  and  most  in- 
telligent generation  which  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  with  a  science  and  an  art  in  your 
possession  capable  of  making  this  busy  age 
a  blessed  one,  and  this  shrewd  and  inventive 
generation  a  truly  wise  one. 

I  am  anxious  that  you  should  understand 
what  a  power  for  benefiting  the  world  God 
in  his  providence  is  now  giving  you ;  and 
therefore  I  beg  your  thoughts  for  a  little  to 
the  specific  benefits  which  the  science  you 
are  now  about  to  study  is  able  to  confer. 
But  ere  doing  so,  it  may  be  well  to  glance 
at  some  of  the  indirect  and  incidental  bene- 


118  THE   BLESSINGS 

fits  which  it  has  bestowed  on  the  promis- 
cuous world.  Besides  that  smaller  compa- 
ny to  whom  it  has  proved  the  power  of 
God,  and  on  whom  its  divine  energy  has 
told  downright,  there  is  a  wide  multitude 
on  whom  it  has  impinged  obliquely,  and 
whom  it  has  affected  sensibly,  though  not 
sufficiently.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at 
some  of  those  benefits  it  has  brought,  even 
where  it  has  not  brought  salvation. 

Imagine,  what  is  very  nearly  the  case, 
that  the  world  is  an  island  in  immensity, 
cut  off  from  all  communication  with  other 
worlds,  except  when  some  "ship  of  heaven," 
such  as  the  gospel  is,  touches  at  its  shores ; 
and  imagine,  further,  that  there  were  few 
who  availed  themselves  of  that  "  ship  of 
heaven,"  to  secure  in  it  a  passage  for  the 
better  country ;  still  it  is  possible  that  the 
world  might  be  the  better  for  the  visit.  The 
vessel  that  anchored  at  Juan  Fernandez,  and 
released  Alexander  Selkirk  from  his  long 
captivity  on  its  desolate  coast,  did  him  an 
unspeakable  service.     Its  arrival  was  to  him 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  119 

a  second  birth,  for  it  introduced  him  anew 
to  the  society  of  living  men.  But  when  it 
left  on  the  shores  a  supply  of  esculent  plants 
and  domestic  animals,  it  did  a  service  to 
any  future  ship's  crew  which  might  visit  the 
same  harbor,  and  to  any  tribe  of  savage 
adventurers  who  might  afterward  take  up 
their  abode  in  its  recesses.  To  the  wistful 
soul  of  the  captive,  that  ship's  arrival  was 
everything.  It  was  life  from  the  dead  ;  it 
was  a  sort  of  resurrection.  But  to  any 
voyager  who  might  afterward  visit  it,  or  any 
colonist  who  might  afterward  settle  in  it, 
the  good  things  which  it  left  behind  it  would 
be  a  mighty  comfort  —  a  prodigious  accom- 
modation. Now,  it  is  much  the  same  with 
the  gospel.  There  are  a  few  persons  to 
whom  it  is  everything.  To  their  longing 
sin-wearied  souls  it  is  a  second  birth  —  it  is 
a  first  resurrection  —  it  is  life  from  the  dead 
—  it  is  immortality.  «But  besides  this  hap- 
py few,  there  is  an  innumerable  company 
to  whom  the  gospel  is  a  great  comfort  —  to 
whom  it  has  become  a  source  of  unspeak- 


120  THE  BLESSINGS 

able  advantages.  They  do  not  care  for  a 
passage  in  the  ship,  but  they  are  glad  to 
get  the  pleasant  fruits  which  grow  —  a  me- 
morial of  its  visit ;  and  it  may  be  well  to 
enumerate  some  of  these. 

There  is  among  mankind  a  widely-dif- 
fused hope  of  immortality.  It  is  not  a 
*'  sure  and  certain  hope,"  but,  so  far  as  it 
goes,  it  is  a  cheering  hope.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible for  any  man  to  be  absolutely  certain 
of  a  happy  hereafter,  unless  Christ  be  his 
*'  hope  of  glory."  None  but  the  Christian 
can  say,  "  Well,  I  know  that  worms  will 
devour  this  body ;  but  I  also  know  that  my 
Redeemer  liveth,  and  that  in  my  flesh  I 
shall  see  God."  Still  it  is  a  comfort  even 
to  a  careless  world,  that  there  are  people 
who  can  say  this.  They  will  not  come  in- 
to the  light,  and  yet  they  are  glad  that  there 
is  light.  And  some  of  them  come  near  the 
light.  They  skirt  its  edge.  They  dwell  in 
the  ambiguous  region,  which  is  neither  light 
nor  dark ;  and  it  is  surprising  how  much 
dim  comfort  men  have  got  even  in  this  twi- 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  121 

light.  It  has  been  a  source  of  much  hero- 
ism. It  has  saved  many  from  self-destruc- 
tion. It  has  whispered  like  an  angel-anthem 
among  the  churchyard-weeds  ;  and  it  has 
burst  a  rainbow  of  radiant  promise  amid 
the  tears  of  agonizing  nature.  The  sure 
and  certain  hope  is  everything ;  however, 
the  dim  and  doubtful  hope  is  much.  It 
goes  far  to  ennoble  life,  and  very  far  to  pal- 
liate human  wo.  The  sure  and  certain 
hope  is  the  direct  blessing  which  the  gos- 
pel brings  ;  the  dim  and  doubtful  hope  is 
the  indirect  blessing  which  follows  in  widen- 
ing wake  wherever  the  gospel  has  passed 
before.  And  though  we  know  that  expec- 
tations of  immortality  can  be  quoted  from 
classic  pagans,  and  are  found  in  different 
degrees  in  lands  not  Christian,  we  are 
strongly  disposed  to  think  that  they  are  in 
every  case  the  traditionary  lingerlngs  of  a 
primeval  gospel,  or  the  faint  echoes  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  ;  in  other  words,  were  the 
traditional  hints  of  God's  first  promise,  and 
the  confused  reports  of  later  preaching  of 
11 


122  THE   BLESSINGS 

prophets  and  apostles — were  these  deduct- 
ed, were  all  traces  of  the  gospel  filtered  out 
of  it,  there  would  be  left  in  the  cup  of  hu- 
man life  none  of  that  sweetest  ingredient  in 
it — a  hope  full  of  immortality. 

Then  the  world  is  exceedingly  indebted 
to  the  beneficence  of  the  gospel.  There 
were  no  hospitals  for  sickness,  no  asylums 
for  age,  and  poverty,  and  insanity,  till  the 
gospel  built  them  ;  no  retreats  for  weeping 
orphanage  or  groping  blindness,  till  the  gos- 
pel opened  them.  Worldly  men  may  pa- 
tronize these  things,  but  it  was  Christianity 
which  invented  them  :  they  never  occurred 
to  mankind  till  they  presented  themselves 
as  the  natural  corollaries  from  the  benignant 
spirit  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  So  was  it 
with  slavery.  The  world  saw  no  harm 
in  slavery.  It  seemed  perfectly  fair  and 
natural  that  the  strongest  should  enthral  the 
weak,  and  get  their  work  done  for  the  least 
possible  wages,  or  for  no  wages  at  all,  till 
the  principle,  "  Do  to  others  as  ye  would 
that  they  should  do  to  you,"  working  its  si- 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  123 

lent  way,  has  abolished  slavery  through 
nearly  the  whole  of  Christendom.  And 
just  as  the  gospel  has  lifted  Lazarus  from 
the  rich  man's  gate,  and  bid  blind  Bartime- 
us  cease  to  sit  by  the  wayside  begging — as 
it  has  extinguished  Sathi  along  the  banks 
of  the  Ganges,  and  is  breaking  the  bonds- 
man's fetters  all  over  the  world  —  so,  like 
its  heavenly  Author,  it  has  extended  its 
mercies  to  the  beasts  of  the  field.  And,  as 
if  conscious  that  the  only  hope  for  its  eman- 
cipation hinges  on  the  ascendency  of  the 
cross,  the  whole  creation  groans  and  trav- 
ails till  the  sons  of  God  be  manifest,  and 
the  sceptre  of  Jesus  be  supreme. 

The  world  is  much  beholden  to  the  refi- 
ning influence  of  Christianity.  It  is  the 
true  antidote  to  the  natural  cruelty  of  man. 
The  reason  why  we  have  not  gladiatorial 
shows,  is  because  we  have  the  gospel.  It 
has  softened  the  heart  of  Europe.  It  has 
all  but  banished  bull-baiting  and  prize-fight- 
ing, and  those  diversions  where  flowing 
blood  and  cries  of  anguish   supplied  the 


124  THE   BLESSINGS 

sport.  The  gospel  is  the  true  antidote  to 
the  surly  selfishness  of  man.  It  is  the  pa- 
rent of  politeness.  Working  not  on  placid 
orientals,  but  on  rude,  cross-grained  north- 
erns, it  has  smoothed  our  Gothic  grufFness 
into  something  like  civility;  and  even  at  a 
period  when  its  more  palpable  influence 
was  lost,  its  refining  influence  effloresced 
strangely  enough  in  the  gallant  and  high- 
souled  courtesy  of  the  age  of  chivalry  ;  and 
now  it  diffuses  itself  more  widely  in  that 
conventional  urbanity  which  makes  inter- 
course so  easy  and  society  so  pleasant.  Tt 
is  at  least  the  wooden  pavement,  the  sprin- 
kled sawdust,  over  which  the  chariot-wheels 
of  existence  move  more  quietly  than  they 
were  wont  to  do.  And  so  is  the  gospel 
the  real  remedy  for  the  natural  lowminded- 
ness  of  man.  Good  taste  and  intellectual 
activity  go  along  with  the  gospel,  vulgarity 
and  mental  torpor  recede  from  before  it ; 
and  though  we  dare  not  say  that,  but  for 
the  gospel,  there  would  have  been  no  sci- 
ence, we  fearlessly  affirm  that,  but  for  the 


OF  THE    GOSPEL.  125 

glad  impulse  which  the  gospel  gave  to  the 
mind  of  man — but  for  the  elation,  and  con- 
scious strength,  and  healthy  energy,  which 
the  Reformation  lent  it  —  discovery  would 
have  advanced  with  drawling  steps,  if  it  had 
ever  begun  its  modern  march  at  all.  The 
gospel,  with  its  constant  mefhentoes  of  im- 
mortality, with  its  hints  of  realities  greater 
than  those  we  see,  with  its  joyful  sugges- 
tions and  its  noble  impulses,  is  the  great 
dignifier  of  human  nature,  and  so  the  great 
prompter  to  research,  and  the  great  guide 
to  discovery.  In  the  sense  most  eminent, 
the  gospel  is  light.  Its  bland  halo  encir- 
cles the  cradle  of  man's  infancy,  and,  soon 
as  he  is  ready  to  start  in  the  career  of  ac- 
tive life,  its  guiding  ray  is  ready  to  start  be- 
fore him  :  it  hovers  like  the  star  of  Bethle- 
hem above  the  spot  where  any  great  discov- 
ery or  glorious  advent  lies  ;  and  when  that 
path  is  terminated,  it  settles  down  a  watch- 
fire  of  faithful  promise  on  man's  sepulchre. 
To  this  great  leading  light  we  directly  or 
indirectly  owe  most  of  the  surprising  dis- 
11* 


126  THE   BLESSINGS 

coveries  and  dazzling  inventions  of  this 
modern  time  ;  for  apart  from  the  intellectual 
quickening  which  the  gospel  has  infused 
into  the  general  mind  of  Christendom  — 
without  this  precursor  to  clear  his  path,  and 
this  preceptor  to  direct  his  thoughts,  there 
would  be  no  one  philosopher  the  mighty 
man  he  this  day  is. 

The  gospel  is  thus  a  public  benefactor  to 
mankind.  Its  saving  benefits  may  be  lim- 
ited, but  its  humanizing,  its  comforting,  and 
elevating  influences,  are  abundantly  catholic. 
It  is  much  in  the  predicament  of  an  opulent 
and  open-hearted  resident  in  some  country- 
side. His  stay  may  have  been  so  long  pro- 
tracted, and  his  bounties  may  have  become 
so  customary,  as  to  be  almost  conventional 
—  as  to  be  a  regular  ingredient  in  the  every- 
day life  of  the  neighborhood,  and  counted 
on  as  things  of  course.  And  it  is  not  till 
he  takes  his  departure  —  it  is  not  till  they 
see  the  weeds  growing  in  the  untrodden 
avenue,  and  the  raven  perched  on  the  smoke- 
less chimney  —  it  is  not  till  hungry  families 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  127 

begin  to  miss  the  weekly  dole,  and  weary 
invalids  the  frequent  visit  —  it  is  not  till  they 
find  that  their  former  comforts  were  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  peculiarity  of  their 
climate  —  something  more  than  a  natural 
growth  of  their  soil  —  that  they  begin  to 
connect  their  by-past  privileges  with  the 
kind  heart  of  their  benefactor,  and  feel  that 
they  ought  to  have  been  grateful.  Now 
that  he  and  his  family  are  off  and  away, 
and  enjoying  themselves  in  other  scenes, 
and  gladdening  another  home,  it  is  ascer- 
tained how  important  their  presence  was. 
Were  the  gospel  to  quit,  not  our  kingdom, 
but  the  world,  and  take  with  it  all  which, 
from  time  to  time,  it  brought ;  were  it  to 
soar  away  to  its  native  skies,  and  take  with 
it  all  that  it  has  scattered  on  this  abode  of 
man,  from  the  hour  that,  near  the  forbidden 
tree,  God  spake  the  primeval  gospel — that 
promise  which,  in  one  form  or  another,  has 
hitherto  kept  the  world's  heart  from  break- 
ing ;  were  the  gospel  to  glean  back  into  it- 
self all  that  it  ever  gave  —  it  is  not  sabbaths 


128  THE   BLESSINGS 

only,  and  bibles,  and  sanctuaries,  which 
would  disappear,  but  civilization  would  flee 
away :  freedom  would  flee  away ;  happy 
homes,  and  smiling  villages,  and  peaceful 
neighborhoods,  would  flee ;  schools  and 
colleges  would  vanish  ;  books  and  all  the 
sciences  would  be  annihilated  ;  and  in  the 
universal  blank  of  human  joy  I  question  if 
"  Hope,  the  charmer,  would  linger  still  be- 
hind." 

But  the  benefits  now  enumerated  are  in- 
cidental and  indirect.  To  see  what  the 
gospel  really  is,  we  must  consider  what  it 
does,  or  is  capable  of  doing,  to  its  willing 
subjects  —  to  those  who,  not  content  with 
its  reflected  lights  and  indirect  illumination, 
come  joyfully  under  its  immediate  efful- 
gence. 

1.  And  first  of  all,  it  gives  them  peace 
with  God.  The  most  unnatural  state  of 
the  creature  is  enmity  against  its  Creator — 
the  most  unnatural,  and  therefore  the  most 
wretched.  The  gospel  slays  this  enmity, 
and  so  neutralizes  the  most  torturing  ele- 


OF  THE   GOSPEL.  129 

ment  in  human  misery.     The  gospel,  when 
credited,  reconciles  the  sinner  to  God,  and 
sends  him  on  his  way  rejoicing.     It  bids 
him  eat  his  daily  bread  with   alacrity,  for 
God  hath  accepted  him.     The  gospel  turns 
the  sinner's  confiding  eye  to  a  propitious 
God,  and  snatching  him  from  the  fearful  pit 
of  alienation  and  antipathy,  from  the  miry 
clay  of  guilty  convictions  and  fearful  fore- 
bodings, it  puts  a  new  song  in  his  mouth, 
and,  with  a  firm  footing  on  the  Rock  of 
Ages,  gives  him  the  upright  bearing,  and 
elastic  step,  and  estabhshed  goings  of  a  free- 
ly-forgiven sinner.     And  it  is  here  that  you 
will  see  the  superiority  of  your  science  to 
every  other  science.     The  gospel  alone  is 
able  to  make  men  happy.     Philosophy  can 
not  do  this.     The  utmost  it  can  do  is  to 
gauge  the  mind  of  man,  and  tell  how  capa- 
cious it  is — how  much  of  the  ingredient 
called  happiness  it  needs  to  fill  this  greedy 
soul  of  ours.     But  philosophy   is   only  a 
ganger  of  empty  barrels,  and  can  neither 
supply  the  new  wine  of  consolation  nor  tell 


130  THE   BLESSINGS 

you  where  to  find  it ;  and  if  you  would  know 
how  much  misery  may  coexist  with  much 
philosophy,  you  have  only  to  read  the  in- 
ner life  of  such  a  man  as  Mirabeau  —  a  man 
of  universal  knowledge,  of  gorgeous  imagi- 
nation, of  dazzling  eloquence,  the  idol  of  a 
people  who,  alas  !  had  no  gods  but  the  like 
of  him ;  but  himself  without  God,  and  so  with- 
out a  hope,  at  last  almost  without  a  motive  ; 
or  of  such  a  man  as  Rousseau,  from  whom 
nothing  in  the  human  heart  seemed  hidden, 
whose  sentimental  museum  was  stored  with 
delicate  casts  and  colored  delineations  of  the 
morbid  anatomy  of  each  affection,  and  the 
minutest  branchings  of  each  desire  and  feel- 
ing ;  whose  mournful  pathology  wrought  out 
the  true  conclusion  that  the  universal  mala- 
dy, the   long  life-fever,  is  a  search  of  the 
impossible,  a  delirious  determination  to  find 
joy  in  the  joyless,  infinite  joy  in  the  finite  ; 
but  who  with   that  induction   stopped  —  a 
skilful  pathologist  but  no  physician,  and, 
ignorant  of  the  remedy,  found  his  nearest 
approach  to  happiness  in   melodious  sigh- 


OF  THE    GOSPEL.  131 

ings  after  it.  And  as  mental  science  will 
not  make  you  happy,  so  neither  will  the 
more  tangible  sciences  which  deal  with  mat- 
ter. It  is  contagious,  it  is  enough  to  make 
a  man  a  chymist  to  accompany  Davy  in  his 
investigations,  and  witness  the  poetic  enthu- 
siasm with  which  he  prosecuted  his  mid- 
night researches,  and  the  boyish  ecstasy 
with  which  he  skipped  about  his  laboratory 
in  possession  of  some  unprecedented  prize. 
But  it  is  heart-withering  to  read  the  records 
of  wretchedness,  the  exclamations  of  ennui 
and  dreariness,  with  which  his  later  journals 
abound.  And  neither  can  the  arts  of  life 
make  you  happy.  Art  has  done  its  utmost 
to  make  the  outer  man  easy,  and  outer  life 
amusing  ;  but  ifrall  stops  outside.  You  may 
put  an  aching  heart  into  a  balloon,  and  send 
it  up  into  the  fields  of  light  and  air,  but  it 
will  come  down  the  same  bruised  and  bro- 
ken heart  which  it  first  ascended.  You  may 
whirl  a  guilty  conscience  along  the  gleaming 
track  of  the  railway  some  forty  miles  an 
hour,  and  leave  stormy  skies  or  the  smoke 


132  THE  BLESSINGS 

of  cities  far  behind ;  but  the  cares,  the  re- 
morse, and  forebodings,  which  went  in  at  the 
one  end  of  the  line,  will  all  come  out  at  the 
other,  and  haunt  that  conscience  still.  You 
may  put  a  wounded  spirit  into  a  picture- 
gallery  or  a  playhouse,  and  regale  it  with 
the  wondrous  creations  of  genius  ;  but  the 
picture  of  joy  is  like  the  picture  of  fire  :  it 
makes  nobody  warm ;  and  from  the  exhibi- 
tion of  some  radiant  landscape  or  blissful 
home-scene,  or  the  rehearsal  of  a  most  di- 
verting comedy,  the  joyless  worldling  may 
walk  out  into  the  midnight  of  his  habitual 
gloom,  or  wakening  up  to  the  drearier  day- 
light of  a  wretchedness  all  too  real,  may 
seek  his  guilty  refuge  from  it  in  self-destruc- 
tion. 

2.  It  gives  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of 
eternal  life.  A  man  who  does  not  believe 
the  gospel  may  have  a  wistful  desire  or  an 
eager  hope,  but  he  can  not  have  the  assured 
confidence  of  a  glorious  immortality.  A 
thoughtful  unbeliever  may  send  a  voice  of 
plaintive  inquiry  into  that  dim  future  which 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  133 

lies  before  him ;  but  no  answer  comes  back 
from  the  unechoing  void.  It  is  the  behever 
in  Jesus  who  gets  the  answer  from  within 
that  veil  —  no  dubious  echo,  but  a  distinct 
response  :  "  I  am  He  that  Hveth  and  was 
dead,  and  behold  I  am  alive  for  evermore. 
He  that  believelh  in  me  shall  never  die." 
The  believer  knows  that,  within  that  veil, 
hidden  from  his  view  merely  by  the  fogs  of 
mortality,  is  One  who  has  worn  human  na- 
ture for  eighteen  hundred  years  ;  one  who 
not  only  Hves,  but  hath  life's  fountain  within 
himself,  and  one  who  has  identified  the  be- 
liever's life  with  his  own,  by  the  omnipotent 
pledge,  "  As  I  live,  ye  shall  Hve  also."  And 
so  conscious,  in  the  hours  of  his  healthiest 
faith,  is  that  believer  that  his  eternal  life  is 
already  begun,  that  he  wearies  till  this  life's 
mist  shall  melt,  and  he  behold  himself  con- 
clusively in  the  sunshine  of  immortality. 

3.  The  gospel  gives  the  believer  an  ever- 
living  Friend.     Many  of  the  productions  of 
art,  the  hook  and  its  eye,  the  joint  and  its 
socket,  the    tenon   and   mortice,   however 
12 


134  THE   BLESSINGS 

exquisitely  finished,  are  incomplete  without 
their  counterparts.  Their  perfection  con- 
sists in  their  incompleteness  —  consists  in 
their  being  so  formed,  that  they  are  not 
complete  till  they  have  received  their  com- 
plement. So  is  it  with  the  soul  of  man. 
Just  as  when  you  see  the  ball  of  the  hinge, 
it  suggests  the  socket  in  which  it  ought  to 
play  ;  just  as  when  you  see  the  tendrils  of 
the  vine,  they  suggest  the  prop  to  which 
they  ought  to  cling  ;  so  when  you  see  the 
outgoing  affections  of  the  soul  of  man,  you 
see  that  it  is  formed  for  union  with  other 
minds  —  that  its  completeness  consists  in  a 
junction  with  reciprocal  and  congenial 
minds.  Accordingly,  you  find  that  the  use- 
fulness and  elevation  of  character  greatly 
depend  on  fitting  on  to  some  superior  mind, 
or  associating  affectionately  and  intimately 
with  characters  capable  of  elevating  and  en- 
nobling your  own.  But  when  these  char- 
acters are  merely  human  —  helpful  as  they 
often  are,  they  labor  under  certain  draw- 
backs.    They  are  imperfect:  even  though 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  135 

they  could  transform  us  into  their  own  Hke- 
ness,  we  should  still,  in  many  things,  fall 
short  of  the  will  of  God.  They  are  crea- 
tures :  the  love  of  them  is  apt  to  degenerate 
into  idolatry.  And  they  are  mortal :  they 
melt  from  our  embrace,  they  vanish  from 
our  view.  But  the  Alpha  and  Omega  does 
not  change.  We  can  never  Hft  our  eyes  to 
where  we  used  to  meet  his  own  and  en- 
counter vacancy.  We  can  never  send  him 
word  of  our  griefs  or  our  desires  with  any 
fear  that  the  message  will  miscarry.  We 
can  not  love  him  too  much,  for  the  more 
we  love  Immanuel  the  less  idolatrous  we 
are.  We  can  not  be  too  like  him,  for  the 
more  exactly  we  resemble  him  the  nearer 
shall  we  approach  to  perfection.  Remem- 
ber this  :  it  is  not  a  theological  formula,  nor 
an  historical  fact,  which  the  gospel  offers  to 
your  acceptance,  so  much  as  an  ever-Hving 
and  all-sufficing  Friend. 

4.  The  gospel  gives  a  man  a  conscience. 
There  is  a  natural  conscience,  but  it  is  not 
good  for  much.     It  is  easily  tampered  with. 


136  THE   BLESSINGS 

It  maybe  bribed,  and  silenced,  and  pervert- 
ed. There  is  scarcely  anything  to  which  a 
natural  man  may  not  reconcile  his  con- 
science. But  a  conscience  which  the  love 
of  God  has  mollified  is  a  tender  one.  It  is 
distressed  about  sin  in  the  heart  as  others 
are  about  sin  in  the  life.  Its  sensitiveness 
shuns  the  appearance  of  evil,  and  its  filial  in- 
stinct makes  it  a  far  surer  index  of  right  and 
wrong  than  the  evasive,  extenuating,  and 
special-pleading  conscience  of  the  uncon- 
verted man. 

5.  The  gospel  gives  a  man  a  heart. 
There  are  some  people  who  look  with  a 
languid  eye  on  everything  ;  and  there  are 
others  who  have  an  interest  in  nothing 
which  does  not  contribute  to  their  own 
comfort.  There  are  some  absolutely  joy- 
less spirits,  from  which  every  particle  of 
zest  has  evaporated  —  who  lag  through  life 
so  listlessly  that  nothing  makes  them  smile, 
and  nothing  makes  them  weep  —  and  mere- 
ly to  look  at  them  is  enough  to  give  you 
wintry  sensations  on  a  summer's  day.    Then 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  .137 

there  are  others  who  have  some  evident  joy 
of  existence,  but  who  are  as  evidently  their 
own  all  in  all  —  trim  and  tidy  souls,  like  a 
box-tree  clipped  and  rounded  —  not  trou- 
bled with  any  tendrils  —  any  outgoing  affec- 
tions or  redundant  emotions  —  snug,  com- 
fortable people,  who  carry  their  universe  in 
a  carpet-bag,  who  love  some  people  very 
dearly,  but  who  also  love  with  the  same 
sort  of  love  the  velvet  cushion  or  the  easy- 
chair,  which  fits  their  dispositions  and  ac- 
commodates their  varying  fancies.  It  is 
not  good  to  have  no  heart  at  all,  or  a  heart 
only  for  oneself.  There  is  no  need  to  be 
in  such  ignoble  case.  The  gospel  not  only 
says,  *'  My  son,  give  me  thy  heart,"  but  it 
gives  the  man  a  heart  to  give.  The  mo- 
ment its  joyous  life  wells  up  in  a  weary 
soul,  the  desert  blossoms  like  the  rose. 
Seeds  of  unsuspected  gladness  are  quick- 
ened into  life,  and  existence  begins  to  wear 
a  face  of  interest  and  gayety,  which  perhaps 
it  did  not  wear,  even  when  viewed  over  the 
12* 


138  THE   BLESSINGS 

cradle's  merry  edge.  And  the  churl's  heart 
grows  bountiful.  The  litde  self-contained 
soul  of  the  worldling  expands  till  it  comes 
in  contact  with  a  broad  surface  of  existence, 
and  wonders  to  find  so  much  that  is  kindly 
and  forthdrawing  in  objects  which  he  for- 
merly dreaded  or  despised  ;  and  in  the  dila^ 
tation  of  his  delighted  heart,  in  the  ready 
rush  of  his  benevolent  and  compassionate 
feelings,  and  in  the  newly-tasted  luxury  of 
doing  good,  he  enters  on  a  domain  of  en- 
joyment, whose  existence  he  formerly  re- 
garded as  a  hyperbole  or  a  fairy  tale.  But, 
above  all,  perfect  peace  casteth  out  selfish- 
ness. The  joy  of  an  ascertained  forgive- 
ness ;  the  happy  outset  on  a  Zionward  pil- 
grimage ;  the  felt  shining  of  God's  uphfted 
countenance  :  it  gives  the  man  all  the  gen- 
erosity of  excessive  gladness,  the  compre- 
hensive good-will  of  a  peace  which  passeth 
understanding  ;  that  eye-kindling,  lip-open- 
ing gratitude,  which  relieves  itself  in  dox- 
ologies  of  brotherly  kindness,  in  deeds  of 
tender  mercy  ;   and    the  love  of  God  shed 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  139 

forth  abundantly,  teaches  the  man  the  new- 
lesson —  to  love  his  brother  also. 

6.  The  gospel  gives  a  man  a  soul  —  a 
mind.  There  is  no  theme  on  which  we 
could  so  eagerly  expatiate  as  the  mental 
emancipations  which  the  gospel  has  be- 
stowed on  the  world  at  large.  But  we  are 
now  speaking,  not  of  its  general  services, 
but  of  its  specific  influence  on  the  individu- 
al intellect.  If  that  mind  be  a  vigorous  or 
wealthy  mind  before,  the  gospel  apprehended 
brings  it  at  once  fresh  opulence  and  power. 
"  The  gospel,"  says  the  greatest  of  modern 
historians,  *'  is  the  fulfilment  of  all  hopes, 
the  perfection  of  all  philosophy,  the  inter- 
preter of  all  revolutions,  the  key  to  all  the 
seeming  contradictions  in  the  physical  and 
moral  world.  It  is  life.  It  is  immortality. 
Since  I  have  known  the  Saviour,  everything 
is  clear  ;  with  him  there  is  nothing  I  can  not 
solve."*  And  just  as  it  swept  in  a  flood  of 
sudden  illumination  over  the  wide  page  of 
universal  history,  as  that  page  had  long  lain 

*  Miiller,  quoted  by  D'Aubigae. 


140  THE   BLESSINGS 

enigmatical  before  the  philosophic  eye  of 
Miiller,  so  has  it  proved  an  intellectual  birth 
to  many  an  humbler  mind.  That  gospel 
whose  inspiration  enabled  the  grovelling 
and  besotted  debauchee  in  the  days  of  his 
moral  renovation  to  write  Oliver's  hymn  — 
"  To  the  God  of  Abraham ;"  that  gospel 
which  taught  the  blaspheming  tinker  of  Bed- 
ford to  write  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  ;" 
that  gospel  which  put  the  pen  of  a  ready 
writer  into  the  rough  hand  of  the  negro-kid- 
napper, and  enabled  Newton  to  compose 
his  letters  of  delectable  wisdom  and  sunny 
benevolence,  as  well  as  the  good  matter  of 
his  spiritual  songs  :  that  gospel  is  indeed  the 
power  of  God.  It  renovates  the  intellect. 
It  can  give  all  the  perspicacity  of  a  clear 
conscience,  all  the  discrimination  and  pru- 
dence of  an  honest  heart,  and  all  the  anima- 
tion and  vivacious  energy  of  an  intellect 
quickened  from  on  high.  The  gospel  path 
is  so  plain,  that  a  wayfaring  man,  though  a 
fool,  need  not  err  therein  ;  but  he  w411  not 
run  in  it  long  till  he  cease  to  be  a  fool.  And 


OF    THE    GOSPEL.  141 

SO  persuaded  are  we  of  the  gospel's  enlight- 
ening efficacy,  that  when  we  meet  with  a 
Christian  professor  remarkable  for  want  of 
judgment,  we  stand  in  doubt  of  him.  We 
question,  and  question  justly,  if  he  can  have 
received  the  truth  in  the  full  power  of  it ; 
for,  in  every  sense,  it  is  light  to  the  eyes, 
and  makes  wise  the  simple. 

7.  Perhaps  it  is  saying  the  same  thing 
over  again,  but  we  are  disposed  to  add  — 
the  gospel  gives  a  man  an  eye.  An  igno- 
ble heedlessness  characterizes  the  mass  of 
worldly  men.  You  point  them  to  the  stars, 
but  if  King  David  had  been  of  their  opin- 
ion, the  eighth  psalm  never  had  been  writ- 
ten :  for  they  never  ^^  consider  the  heavens, 
the  moon,  and  the  stars,"  which  the  Lord 
our  Lord  ordained.  You  point  them  to 
the  flowers,  but  so  far  as  they  are  concerned, 
the  Great  Teacher  said  in  vain,  "  Consider 
the  lilies,"  for  the  lilies  they  will  not  con- 
sider. You  send  them  to  animated  nature, 
but  they  refuse  to  go.  The  birds  singing 
among  the  branches — the  high  hills,  with 


142  THE   BLESSII^GS 

their  wild-goats,  and  the  young  lions  in  their 
darkling  dens,  are  all  alike  to  thenn.  Their 
tuneless  souls  do  not  swing  to  the  cadence 
of  the  hundred  and  fourth  psalm.  You  send 
them  to  the  structure  of  the  earth,  and  bid 
them  view  the  marvels  of  creative  skill  en- 
tombed in  its  rocky  caverns  ;  but  so  indif- 
ferent are  they  to  the  sublime  research,  that 
had  they  been  among  the  morning  stars 
when  earth's  corner-stone  was  laid,  and  its 
foundation  fastened,  they  would  have  re- 
fused to  sing,  and  been  offended  with  the 
sons  of  God  for  shouting  so  joyfully  on  such 
an  occasion.  And  it  is  not  so  wonderful 
that  men  do  not  care  to  study  mere  lumps 
of  matter  and  cold  material  laws.  But  when 
a  soul  is  visited  by  the  day-spring  from  on 
high,  a  flush  of  joyous  beauty  spreads  over 
the  face  of  nature,  and  there  is  nothing  tame, 
and  nothing  formidable,  when,  born  from 
above,  the  beholder  can  say,  "  My  Father 
made  them  all."  Truly,  the  saints  inherit 
the  earth  ;  for  notwithstanding  the  strange 
frowning  of  some  good  men  on  the  natural 


OF  THE    GOSPEL.  143 

sciences,  and  all  the  unaccountable  contempt 
which  some  eminent  Christians  have  poured 
on  the  handiwork  of  Tmmanuel,  they  are  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  still  who  most  admire  and 
most  enjoy  the  works  of  God.  The  eyes 
which  have  scanned  the  sparkling  firmament, 
or  dwelt  on  the  ruby  and  sapphire  dust  of 
the  insect's  wing  —  which  have  glistened 
over  the  laughing  leagues  of  the  golden  har- 
vest-fields, or  tingled  as  they  gazed  on  some 
fairy  flower ;  the  ears  which  have  oftenest 
listened  to  ocean's  "  billowy  chime,"  or  to 
the  grim  cloud's  thunder-psalm — which 
have  drunk  the  ravishment  of  multitudinous 
joys  in  the  rich  music  of  spring,  or  heark- 
ened to  the  evening  tune  of  the  wilderness- 
bee,  and  felt  it  like  a  hermit's  orison :  those 
eyes  and  ears  have  been  chiefly  theirs  to 
whom  the  brightness  of  each  scene  is  the 
love  of  Jesus,  and  to  whom  the  burden  of 
every  stanza  in  Nature's  ode  of  countless 
voices  and  uncounted  ages  is  —  "  In  the  be- 
ginning was  the  Word,  and  all  these  things 
were  made  by  him." 


144  THE    BLESSINGS 

I  might  say  more.  I  might  go  on  to  show 
how  the  gospel  gives  to  each  one  who  re- 
ceives it,  and  sufficiently  avails  himself  of 
it,  a  pure  morality,  engaging  manners,  good 
taste,  fitness  for  a  higher  and  holier  state 
of  being,  and  above  all,  a  peculiar  charm, 
a  beauty  of  outward  holiness  and  a  glorious- 
ness  within,  an  exquisite  attractiveness  which, 
by  the  instinct  of  congenial  sanctity,  draws 
toward  him  who  has  it  the  love  of  each  who 
has  got  the  same  new  name,  and  the  com- 
placency of  God  himself.  So  far  as  the 
gospel  is  credited,  and  its  omnipotent  re- 
sources for  hallowing  the  family  home  or 
the  individual  heart  admitted,  there  is  no 
limit  to  the  beatific  influence  of  a  dispensa- 
tion which  transmits  no  joy  to  earth  which 
is  not  at  least  an  equal  joy  to  heaven.* 

And  if  it  be  matter  of  congratulation  to 
enter  the  ministry  of  such  a  gospel  in  any 
age,  and  especially  in  an  age  which  has 
made  its  road  so  ready,  and  would  make 
its  triumphs  so  signal,  as  our  own  ;  it  is  no 

*  Luke  ii.  13,  14  ;  xv.  6,  7.     Isaiah  liii.  10,  11. 


OF    THE    GOSPEL.  145 

less  matter  of  congratulation  to  comnnence 
the  appropriate  studies  for  that  ministry  at  a 
time  when  the  gospel  is  so  firmly  establish- 
ed, so  well  understood,  and  so  variously 
applied. 

The  gospel  is  essentially  a  matter  of  fact, 
and  its  great  fact  was  never  more  fully 
ascertained  than  in  the  days  in  which  we 
live.  Not  long  ago  the  question  might  be 
raised,  and  the  answer  might  occasion  some 
anxiety,  how  do  you  know  that  the  New 
Testament  is  not  a  forgery  of  the  dark 
ages  ?  And  even  if  it  were  not,  how  do 
you  know  that  the  events  it  records  are 
true?  But,  thanks  to  the  progress  of  exact 
criticism,  we  are  now  as  sure  that  the  New 
Testament  was  written  in  the  apostolic  age, 
and  by  such  men  as  itself  alleges,  as  if  we 
had  seen  the  pen  in  the  living  hand  of 
Matthew,  Luke,  and  John;  and,  thanks  to 
the  progress  of  the  laws  of  evidence,  we  are 
now  as  sure  that  its  main  events  took  place, 
as  if  our  actual  eyes  had  seen  the  miracles, 
or  our  own  ears  had  listened  to  its  words 
13 


146  THE   BLESSINGS 

of  wonder.  After  the  punctilious  collation 
of  manuscripts  by  Wetstein  and  Griesbach, 
and  after  the  principles  of  internal  criticism 
developed  by  Bentley,  and  Marsh,  and 
Isaac  Taylor,  in  England,  and  a  more  nu- 
merous band  in  the  United  States  and  Ger- 
many, no  scholar  will  impugn  the  apostolic 
antiquity  and  textual  genuineness  of  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures.  And  after  the 
prodigious  accumulations  of  Lardner,  and 
the  brief  but  resistless  deductions  of  Paley, 
and  the  philosophic  expositions  of  Chalmers, 
few  who  pretend  to  common  sense  will 
question  the  historic  truth  of  the  events 
which  these  Scriptures  record.  It  has  come 
to  this  happy  issue,  that  the  intellect  which 
is  not  too  obtuse  for  understanding  any- 
thing, or  the  judgment  which  is  not  too 
unstable  for  beheving  anything,  must,  if  in 
earnest,  be  shut  up  to  the  faith  of  Jesus. 
We  do  not  say  too  much  when  we  aver 
that,  to  a  serious  mind,  the  dilemma  is  now 
the  simple  one  of  believing  the  Scripture 
testimony  concerning  Jesus,  or  believing  no 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  147 

testimony  whatsoever.  And  just  as  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  are  now  so  re- 
duntant  as  to  make  new  corrobations  little 
more  than  matters  of  curiosity,  so  the  es- 
sentials of  Christianity  are  so  well  ascer- 
tained, that  few  vital  truths  are  the  subject 
of  longer  controversy.  After  the  unan- 
swered arguments  of  Magee,  the  dispassion- 
ate statements  and  scriptural  erudition  of 
Smith  ;  after  the  transparent  reasoning  and 
logical  felicity  of  Wardlaw,  and  the  candor, 
acuteness,  and  cogency  of  Moses  Stuart ; 
few  who  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word 
of  God  will  deny  that  the  pillar  and  ground 
of  the  truth  Is  God  manifest  in  flesh.  And 
after  the  calm  and  dignified  prelections  of 
O'Brien,  and  the  vigorous  expositions  of 
Haldane  —  perhaps  too  dogmatic  in  his 
tone,  but  nobly  tenacious  of  the  text — few 
will  gainsay  the  reformation  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  alone.  And  though 
there  are  some  fearful  departures  from  the 
faith,  and  some  keen  debates  among  the 
faithful,  we  question  if  the  church  of  Christ 


148  THE   BLESSINGS 

has  possessed  the  truths  of  Revelation  more 
copiously,  or  realized  them  more  vividly, 
or  avowed  them  more  unanimously,  since 
the  apostles  fell  asleep,  than  now,  when  all 
are  so  agreed  in  looking  on  Immanuel  as 
the  Alpha  and  Omega  in  religion,  the  bright- 
ness of  the  Father's  glory,  and  the  express 
image  of  the  Father's  person,  and  in  re- 
garding the  gospel  as  the  divinely-contrived 
and  divinely-conducted  scheme  for  recon- 
ciling sinners  to  the  character  of  God,  with 
a  view  to  renewing  them  into  the  image  of 
God ;  and  when  almost  all  are  so  agreed  in 
believing  that  before  men  are  convinced  of 
sin,  and  righteousness,  and  judgment,  the 
Holy  Spirit  must  come,  and  that  where  he 
is  come,  the  living  faith  and  the  holy  life, 
the  fruits  of  his  presence,  will  appear. 

Besides,  it  is  a  distinction  of  these  times 
that  the  gospel  has  entered  more  largely 
than  ever  on  its  legitimate  domain.     Man, 

IN  HIS  MIGHTIEST  UNDERTAKINGS  AND 
MINUTEST  ACTIONS,  IN  HIS  MOST  ISOLA- 
TED STATE  AND  MOST  COMPLICATED    AS- 


OF    THE    GOSPEL.  149 

SOCIATIONS,  IS   THE  GOSPEL's    RIGHTFUL 

SUBJECT.  This  truth,  often  forgotten,  and 
still  oftener  perverted,  is  now  beginning  to 
be  better  understood,  and,  notwithstanding 
all  which  "  now  letteth,"  is  working  its  on- 
ward w^ay  to  its  inherent  and,  predicted 
vindication.  Within  the  years  of  our  own 
memory,  several  steps  have  been  taken  in 
advance  toward  the  great  conclusion,  and 
several  doors  have  been  opened  to  let  the 
gospel  in  to  the  fields  of  its  rightful  occu- 
pancy; and  while  hitherto  the  gospel  has 
been  kept  almost  entirely  within  the  precincts 
of  churches  and  closets,  an  attempt  is  now 
making  to  send  it  up  into  cabinets  and  down 
into  workshops  —  to  give  it  control  over  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  and  the  councils  of 
nations,  and  to  inscribe  its  mark  of  conse- 
cration on  the  horses'  bells  and  bridles.* 
In  other  words,  while  it  has  heretofore  been 
too  common  to  reserve  evangelical  religion 
for  the  upper  room  of  Christian  intercourse 
or  the  calm  retreat  of  secret  meditation,  an 

*  Zech.  xiv.  20,  21  ;  Isaiah.  Lx. 

13* 


150  THE   BLESSINGS 

attempt  is  now  making  to  bring  it  down  into 
the  morning  parlor,  and  out  into  the  market- 
place, as  well  as  to  give  it  a  voice  in  the 
public  prints  and  in  the  nation's  parliament. 
A  literature,  in  which  our  American  brethren 
have  taken  the  unrivalled  lead,  has  intro- 
duced the  gospel  into  the  large  territory  of 
daily  life,  and  has  shown  how  the  slightest 
movement  and  the  humblest  meal  come 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  all-pervading 
Christianity.  *'  Whether,  therefore,  ye  eat 
or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the 
glory  of  God.  Whatsoever  ye  do  in  word 
or  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  giving  thanks  unto  God,  even  the 
Father,  through  him."  And  ascending 
from  this  to  the  highest  territory  —  from  the 
independent  man  in  his  isolated  acts  to 
society  in  its  miscellaneous  interests  and 
complicated  movements,  we  recognise  one 
pre-eminent  name*  challenging  for  the  gos- 
pel the  same  ascendency  over  communities, 

*  It  scarcely  requires  a  note  to  say  that  Dr.  Chalmers  is 
here  intended. 


OF   THE   GOSPEL.  151 

and  nations,  and  universal  man,  which  all 
concede  in  the  case  of  the  individual  or  the 
family.  And  whether  he  have  stamped  his 
impress  on  this  age  or  not,  the  great  phi- 
lanthropist of  our  day  can  reckon  on  the 
establishment  of  those  evangelized  ethics, 
and  that  Christianized  political  ecomony, 
for  which  his  life  has  been  the  protest,  and 
much  temporary  fame  the  sacrifice  —  as  not 
later  than  the  final  answer  to  the  Lord's 
prayer,  and  coeval  with  that  time  when 
God's  kingdom  having  come,  his  will  shall 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Gendemen,  I  trust  that  before  you  pass 
forth  upon  this  ministry,  you  will  find  your- 
selves in  possession  of  something  which  you 
will  not  only  deem  it  important  for  the  world 
to  know,  but  so  important  that  you  would 
rather  die  attempting  to  make  it  known  than 
that  the  world  should  die  without  it.  I  hope 
you  will  be  content  with  the  old  theology  — 
the  theology  of  the  Bible,  but  that  you  will 
not  be  content  till  your  own  clear  apprehen- 
sions and  vivid  experience  give  it  all  the 


152  BLESSINGS   OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

zest  of  novelty.  1  hope  that  you  will  hold 
revealed  truth  so  firmly,  and  survey  the 
surrounding  world  so  wisely,  that  you  will 
be  able  to  give  your  old  theology  fresh  and 
effective  applications  every  day.  I  trust 
that  you  will  seek  to  give  yourselves  up  in 
a  joyful  and  exulting  loyalty  to  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  in  a  meek  submission  to  his 
teaching  and  transforming  spirit.  And  thus 
issuing  upon  the  world  on  the  noblest  errand 
and  in  the  might  which  is  alone  resistless, 
I  would  not  despair  that  the  world  should 
see  in  your  persons  a  more  devoted  min- 
istry, and  should  recognise  in  your  preach- 
ing a  more  developed  gospel,  than  these 
later  times  have  been  wont  to  witness  ;  nor 
doubt  that  ere  going  hence  you  may  do 
something  to  exalt  and  endear  on  earth  that 
Name  which  is  above  every  name,  and  in 
whose  universal  supremacy  a  consenting 
world  at  last  will  find  the  long-sought  secret 
of  its  happiness. 


PARABLES 

ILLUSTRATIVE  OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE. 


THE    PILGRIMS    AND   THEIR   PITCHERS. 

It  was  long  ago,  and  somewhere  in  the 
eastern  clime.  The  king  came  into  the 
garden  and  called  the  children  round  him. 
He  led  them  up  to  a  sunny  knoll  and  a 
leafy  arbor  on  its  summit.  And  when  they 
had  all  sat  down,  he  said,  "  You  see  far 
down  the  river,  and  hanging  as  on  the  side 
of  the  hill,  yon  palace?  It  is  a  palace  — 
though  here  it  looks  so  little  and  far  away. 
But  when  you  reach  it  you  will  find  it  a 
larger  and  sweeter  home  than  this ;  and 
when  you  come  you  will  find  that  I  have 
got  there  before  you.     And  when  you  ar- 


154  PARABLES    ILLUSTRATIVE 

rive  at  the  gate,  that  they  may  know  that 
you  belong  to  me,  and  may  let  you  in,  here 
is  what  each  of  you  must  take  with  him." 
And  he  gave  to  each  of  the  children  a  most 
beautiful  porcelain  jar — a  little  pitcher  so 
exquisitely  fashioned  that  you  were  almost 
afraid  to  touch  it,  so  pure  that  you  could 
see  the  daylight  through  it,  and  with  delicate 
figures  raised  on  its  sides.  "  Take  this, 
and  carry  it  carefully.  Walk  steadily,  and 
the  journey  will  soon  be  over."  But  they 
had  not  gone  far  before  they  forgot.  One 
was  running  carelessly  and  looking  over 
his  shoulder,  when  his  foot  stumbled,  and 
as  he  fell  full  length  on  the  stony  path  the 
pitcher  was  shivered  in  a  thousand  pieces  ; 
and  one  way  and  another,  long,  long  before 
they  reached  the  palace,  they  had  broken 
all  the  pitchers.  When  this  happened  I 
may  mention  what  some  of  them  did.  Some 
grew  sulky,  and  knowing  that  it  was  of  no 
use  to  go  forward  without  the  token,  they 
began  to  shatter  the  fragments  still  smaller, 
and  dashed  the  broken  sherds  among  the 


OF    SCRIPTURE    DOCTRINE.  155 

Stones,  and  stamped  them  with  their  feet : 
and  then  they  said,  *' Why  trouble  ourselves 
about  this  palace  ?  It  is  far  away,  and  here 
is  a  pleasant  spot.  We  will  just  stay  here 
and  play."  And  so  they  began  to  play. 
Another  could  not  play,  but  sat  wringing 
his  hands,  and  weeping  bitterly.  Another 
grew  pale  at  first,  but  recovered  his  com- 
posure a  little  on  observing  that  his  pitcher 
was  not  broken  so  bad  as  some  others. 
There  were  three  or  four  large  pieces,  and 
these  he  put  together  as  well  as  he  could. 
It  was  a  broken  pitcher  that  could  hold  no 
water,  but  by  a  litde  care  he  could  keep  it 
together  ;  and  so  he  gathered  courage,  and 
began  to  walk  along  more  cautiously.  Just 
then,  a  voice  accosted  the  weeping  boy, 
and  looking  up,  he  saw  a  very  lovely  form, 
with  a  sweet  and  pleasant  countenance  — 
such  a  countenance  as  is  accustomed  to  be 
happy,  though  some  thing  for  the  present 
has  made  it  sad.  And  in  his  hand  he  held 
just  such  a  pitcher  as  the  little  boy  had 
broken,  only  the  workmanship  was  more 


156  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

exquisite,  and  the  colors  were  as  bright  as 
he  rainbow  round  the  stranger's  head. 
*'  You  may  have  it,"  he  said,  "  it  is  better 
than  the  one  you  have  lost,  and  though  it 
is  not  the  same,  they  will  know  it  at  the 
gate."  The  little  mourner  could  scarcely 
believe  that  it  was  really  meant  for  him ; 
but  the  kind  looks  of  the  stranger  encour- 
aged him.  He  held  out  his  hand  for  the 
stranger's  vase,  and  gave  a  sob  of  joyful 
surprise  when  he  found  it  his  own.  He 
began  his  journey  again,  and  you  would 
have  liked  to  see  how  tenderly  he  carried 
his  treasure,  and  how  carefully  he  picked 
his  steps,  and  how  sometimes,  when  he 
gave  another  look  at  it,  the  tear  would  fill 
his  eye,  and  he  lifted  up  his  happy  thankful 
face  to  heaven.  The  stranger  made  the 
same  offer  to  the  playing  boys,  but  by  this 
time  they  were  so  bent  on  their  new  amuse- 
ments, that  they  did  not  care  for  it.  Some 
saucy  children  said,  he  might  leave  his 
present  there  if  he  liked,  and  they  would 
take  it  when  they  were  ready.     He  passed 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  157 

away,  and  spoke  to  the  boy  who  was  carry- 
ing the  broken  pitcher.  At  first  he  would 
have  denied  that  it  was  broken,  but  the 
traveller's  clear  glance  had  already  seen  it 
all ;  and  so  he  told  him,  "  You  had  better 
cast  it  away,  and  have  this  one  in  its  stead." 
The  boy  would  have  been  very  glad  to  have 
this  new  one,  but  to  throw  away  the  relics 
of  his  own  was  what  he  could  never  think 
of.  They  were  his  chief  dependence  every 
time  he  thought  of  the  journey's  end ;  so 
he  thanked  the  stranger,  and  clasped  his 
fragments  firmer.  The  boy  with  the  gift- 
pitcher,  and  this  other,  reached  the  precincts 
of  the  palace  about  the  same  time.  They 
stood  for  a  little  and  looked  on.  They 
noticed  some  of  the  bright-robed  inhabitants 
going  out  and  in,  and  every  time  they  passed 
the  gate,  they  presented  such  a  token  as 
they  themselves  had  once  got  from  the  king, 
but  had  broken  so  long  ago.  The  boy  who 
had  accepted  the  kind  stranger's  present 
now  went  forward,  and  held  it  up;  and 
whether  it  was  the  light  glancing  on  it  from 
14 


158  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

the  pearly  gate,  I  can-  not  tell,  but  at  that 
instant  its  owner  thought  that  it  had  never 
looked  so  fair.  He  who  kept  the  gate 
seemed  to  think  the  same,  for  he  gave  a 
friendly  smile,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  I  know 
who  gave  you  that ;"  and  immediately  the 
door  was  lifted  up  and  let  the  little  pilgrim 
in.  The  boy  with  the  broken  pitcher  now 
began  to  wish  that  his  choice  had  been  the 
same  ;  but  there  was  no  help  for  it  now. 
He  adjusted  the  fragments  as  skilfully  as  he 
could,  and  trying  to  look  courageous,  carried 
them  in  both  his  hands.  But  he  who  kept 
the  gate  was  not  to  be  deceived.  He 
shook  his  head,  and  there  was  that  sorrow 
in  his  look,  which  leaves  no  hope.  The 
bearer  of  the  broken  pitcher  still  held  fast 
his  useless  sherds  ;  but  he  soon  found  that 
it  was  vain  to  linger.  The  door  continued 
shut. 


OF    SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  159 

THE   MOUNTAIN   IN    THE    PLAIN. 

There  was  once  a  mountain  in  the  midst 
of  an  extensive  plain.  The  plain  was  a 
wild  common,  on  which  lived  many  people, 
some  of  them  very  hard-wrought,  some  of 
them  very  wicked,  and  most  of  them  very 
wretched.  They  busied  themselves  root- 
ing out  the  furze,  the  thistles,  and  briers 
that  grew  plenty  on  the  plain.  But  it  was 
amazing  how  fast  these  weeds  grew  up 
again,  and  what  scanty  crops  repaid  their 
toil.  And  besides  all  this,  hardly  a  day 
went  by  but  some  one  was  torn  by  wild 
beasts  which  infested  the  neighboring  forest, 
or  plundered  and  beaten,  and  possibly  mur- 
dered by  robbers  who  haunted  there.  Yet 
they  took  htde  notice  of  the  mountain,  Its 
sides  were  rugged.  None  of  the  people  in 
the  plain  had  ever  been  on  the  top  of  it. 
But  a  few  of  the  more  noticing  had  made 
some  observations  on  it.  They  remarked 
that  a  perpetual  sunshine  settled  on  its  sum- 
mit, and  they  inferred  that  it  must  be  a  very 


160  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

genial  time,  for  by  the  help  of  their  prospect- 
glasses  they  could  make  out  golden  fields 
and  gardens  bright  with  blossoms,  and  over 
the  mountain's  edge  folded  thick  bunches 
of  verdure  heavy  with  purple  fruits.  Still 
nobody  had  been  on  the  top,  and  few  paid 
much  attention  to  the  mountain  in  the  plain. 
One  day  as  a  man  was  musing  on  the  com- 
mon near  its  foot,  and  was  grudging  to  think 
what  a  perilous  toilsome  life  he  was  leading, 
he  heard  a  solemn  whisper  in  his  ear.  It 
was  such  a  startling  whisper  that  it  raised 
him  to  his  feet.  It  said,  *'  Tarry  not  in  the 
plain."  And  he  felt  an  instant  force  upon 
him.  He  began  to  move  before  he  had 
time  to  deliberate.  He  cast  an  eye  at  the 
mountain,  and  he  saw  high  up  and  far  away 
some  of  its  inhabitants  walking  in  its  light, 
he  said  to  himself,  "  Happy  people !  Would 
that  I  were  with  you."  And  he  wandered 
round  and  round  the  hill,  but  found  nowhere 
that  he  could  go  easily  up.  At  last  he  came 
to  a  sort  of  gulley  or  ravine  that  promised 
to  take  him  to  the  top.     He  went  winding 


OF    SCRIPTURE    DOCTRINE.  161 

Up  some  way  without  much  difficulty,  till 
suddenly  he  came  out  upon  a  ledge  which 
overhung  a  dark  lake  far  below.  But  still 
the  rocky  pass  promised  to  conduct  him 
higher,  and  determined  not  to  look  down 
if  he  could  help  it,  he  began  again  to  clamb- 
er upward,  till  at  last  he  found  himself  in  a 
niche  of  rock  behind  which  he  could  not 
go.  He  looked  up  and  saw  cliff  hanging 
over  cliff,  and  not  even  a  thread  of  pathway 
by  which  to  scramble  higher.  He  looked 
down,  and  the  moment  he  did  so  the  sweat 
began  to  ooze  from  his  finger  points,  and 
his  heart  to  flutter  with  faintness  and  fear, 
for  he  was  clinging  by  a  jutting  crag, 
and  he  had  scarcely  courage  to  draw  a 
single  breath,  lest  it  should  loosen  his  slip- 
pery hold  and  send  him  and  the  rotten  rock 
a-spinning  to  the  lake  below.  Just  then 
the  same  voice  which  had  startled  him  on 
the  plain  whispered  softly  in  his  ear,  "  Cast 
thyself  down  hence."  The  proposal  was 
a  strange  one,  but  the  voice  was  so  friendly 
and  encouraging,  that  he  almost  hesitated 
14* 


162  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

whether  he  would  not  comply,  when  it 
spoke  agam  in  a  sweet  whisper  as  before, 
but  this  time  such  a  secret  might  went  with 
it,  that  the  man  could  not  refuse,  though 
he  almost  wondered  at  himself.  "Cast 
thyself  down."  And  he  let  go  his  hold, 
when,  instead  of  bolting  down  to  the  abyss, 
a  powerful  arm  caught  hold  of  him ;  he 
felt  himself  securely  borne,  and,  wafted  up- 
ward on  viewless  wings,  was  landed  safe  on 
the  mountain's  crown,  and  as  soon  as  the 
amazement  of  deliverance  had  somewhat 
subsided,  he  flung  himself  on  a  fragrant 
bank  where  some  fruits  newly  shaken  from 
the  tree  were  lying.  He  was  full  of  blessed- 
ness, and  wept  a  while.  That  evening  one 
of  the  people  of  the  plain  passing  near  the 
mountain,  thought  he  heard  the  voice  of  an 
old  neighbor  singing  far  up  on  the  summit. 
But  it  was  a  new  song,  not  known  there- 
away, and  except  one  verse,  the  man  could 
remember  none  of  it: — 

"  He  took  me  from  a  fearful  pit, 
And  from  the  miry  clay, 
And  on  a  rock  he  set  my  feet, 
Establishing  my  way." 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  163 

THE   king's   banquet. 

A  CERTAIN  king  prepared  a  sumptuous 
banquet  in  honor  of  his  son.  The  first  in- 
vitations were  issued  to  the  nobles  of  the 
land,  and  sundry  families,  who  had  long 
been  favorites  with  the  prince.  But  the 
banqueting-hour  arrived,  and  did  not  bring 
them.  A  sulky  fit  had  seized  them  ; — 
and,  as  if  by  combination,  they  all  remained 
away.  But  the  king  was  resolved  that  his 
munificence  should  not  be  lost,  nor  the  hon- 
or intended  for  his  son  defeated.  And,  as 
all  the  people  round  about  were  alike  his 
subjects,  he  said  to  his  servants,  **  The 
feast  is  ready,  but  none  of  the  guests  are 
come.  Go  out  into  the  highways  and 
hedges,  and  bring  in  all  you  can  find." 
The  servants  went,  and  great  surprise  there 
was  when  they  told  their  errand.  One  poor 
laborer  was  returning  from  his  work,  and, 
after  toiling  all  day,  had  got  no  wages  from 
the  man  who  hired  him,  and  was  trudging 
wearily  home  to  his  empty  cupboard,  when 


164  PARABLES    ILLUSTRATIVE 

the  king's  messenger  accosted  him,  and  told 
that  a  feast  was  prepared  for  him.  After 
the  first  gaze  of  incredulity,  seeing  by  his 
uniform  that  he  was  the  king's  servant,  and 
really  in  earnest,  the  poor  laborer  turned 
his  steps  toward  the  palace.  The  next  was 
a  cripple,  who  sat  by  the  wayside  begging. 
He  had  gathered  little  that  day,  when  the 
messenger  told  him  he  would  find  a  feast  at 
the  palace,  and  the  king  desired  to  see  him. 
He  had  heard  that  something  remarkable 
was  going  on  at  the  court,  and  that  the  king 
was  giving  an  entertainment  in  honor  of 
some  special  event  in  his  son's  history  ;  and 
though  he  scarcely  expected  anything  moie 
than  a  ration  of  bread  and  wine  at  the  gate, 
as  he  knew  that  the  king  was  of  a  very 
sumptuous  and  gracious  disposition,  he  did 
not  hesitate,  but  raised  himself  on  his  crutch- 
es, got  up,  and  hobbled  away.  Then  the 
messenger  came  to  a  shady  lane,  down  which 
a  retired  old  gentleman  lived  on  a  small 
spot  of  ground  of  his  own.  The  messenger 
had  far  more  trouble  with  him.     It  was  not 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  165 

SO  much  that  he  questioned  the  message, 
or  that  he  did  not  Hke  the  invitation,  but 
that  he  was  annoyed  at  its  abruptness,  and 
at  his  own  want  of  preparedness.  He 
asked  if  there  were  to  be  no  more  invita- 
tions issued  next  week,  or  if  there  were  no 
possibility  of  postponing  the  visit  till  the  fol- 
lowing evening  ;  for,  considering  his  station 
in  society,  he  would  like  to  appear  in  his 
best,  and  could  have  been  glad  of  a  little 
leisure  to  get  all  things  in  order.  "  How- 
ever," said  the  messenger,  "  you  know  the 
custom  of  our  court :  the  king  provides  the 
robes  of  state  ;  all  things  are  ready  —  come 
away  ;"  and  as  he  posted  on,  the  old  house- 
holder thought  that,  rather  than  run  any 
risk,  he  had  better  go  at  once  ;  though  some 
noticed  that  as  he  passed  along  he  occasion- 
ally eyed  his  threadbare  garment  with  a  look 
that  seemed  to  say,  he  could  have  put  on 
better,  had  longer  time  been  allowed  him. 
Then  at  the  palace  it  was  interesting  to  see 
how  the  different  parties  acted.  According 
to  the  custom  of  that  country,  and  more  es- 


166  PARABLES    ILLUSTRATIVE 

pecially  after  the  magnificent  manner  of  that 
king,  each  guest  was  furnished  on  his  arri- 
val with  a  gorgeous  robe.  They  were  all 
alike — exceeding  rich  and  costly  ;  and  the 
moment  he  came  up,  one  was  handed  to 
each  new-comer,  and  he  put  it  on  and 
passed  in  to  the  dazzling  banquet-hall. 
Some  awkward  persons,  who  did  not  know 
the  usage  of  the  place,  and  who  had  carried 
with  them  the  mean  notions  which  they 
learned  among  the  highways  and  hedges, 
scrupled  to  receive  these  shining  robes,  and 
asked  what  price  they  must  pay  for  them. 
And  one  individual  was  observed  to  come 
in  with  rather  better  attire  than  the  most, 
and,  when  offered  a  robe  of  the  king's  pro- 
viding, he  politely  declined  it,  and  stepped 
forward  into  the  state-apartments.  He  was 
no  sooner  there  than  he  rued  his  vanity  :  for 
his  faded  tinsel  contrasted  fearfully  with  the 
clothing  of  wrought  gold  in  which  the  other 
guests  were  arrayed.  However,  instead  of 
going  back  to  get  it  changed,  he  awaited 
the  issue.     All  things  were  now  ready  :  the 


OF    SCKIPTURE    DOCTRINE.  167 

folding-doors  opened,  and  from  chambers 
all  radiant  with  purest  light,  and  redolent  of 
sweetest  odors,  amid  a  joyful  train,  the  king 
stepped  in  to  see  the  guests.  A  frown  for 
a  moment  darkened  his  majestic  brow  as  he 
espied  the  presumptuous  guest ;  but  the  in- 
truder that  instant  vanished,  and,  with  a  be- 
nignity which  awakened  in  every  soul  such 
a  joy  as  it  had  never  felt  before — with  a 
look  which  conferred  nobility  wherever  it 
alighted,  and  a  smile  that  awakened  immor- 
tality in  every  bosom  —  he  bade  them  wel- 
come to  the  ivory  palace,  and  told  them  to 
forget  their  father's  house  and  their  poor 
original,  for  he  meant  to  make  them  prin- 
ces every  one  ;  and,  as  there  were  many 
mansions  in  the  house,  they  should  there 
abide  for  ever. 

You  will  observe  that  a  welcome  from 
the  King  depends  entirely  on  having  on 
what  the  gospel  parable  calls  "  a  wedding- 
robe."  This  robe,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  old  and  eastern  times,  is  provided 
by  the  lord  of  the  house,  and,  as  a  matter 


168  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

of  course,  is  put  on  every  guest  as  he  en- 
ters—  of  course,  only  if  he  be  willing  —  but 
none  who  is  willing  need  want  it,  for  it  is 
gratuitously  given  to  all.  That  robe  is  righ- 
teousness—  not  man's,  but  Jehovah's  — 
the  righteousness  of  God's  providing  ;  that 
righteousness  which  is  imbodied  in  Christ 
Jesus,  as  it  was  wrought  out  by  him  ;  that 
righteousness  which  made  Paul  so  careless 
about  worldly  calamities,  and  so  disdainful 
of  his  own  performances.  (Phil.  iii.  8,  9.) 
And,  dear  brethren,  be  persuaded  :  put  ye 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Say  that  you 
henceforth  take  your  stand,  not  on  what 
you  yourself  ever  hope  to  be,  but  on  v^hat 
the  Lord  Jesus  already  is.  Do  not  deny 
your  own  vileness,  but,  as  you  would  ever 
be  saved,  do  not  deny  his  worthiness.  Ye 
poor  and  blind  !  step  in  to  the  feast ;  ye 
halt  and  maimed  !  creep  in.  When  at  heav- 
en's gate  they  ask  in  whose  right  you  come, 
make  mention  of  Jesus's  righteousness,  and 
the  everlasting  doors  will  open  to  receive 
you.     The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  169 

mouth  :  speak  it  out.  Confess  the  Lord 
Jesus  ;  believe  that  God  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead,  and,  by  raising  him  from  the 
dead,  has  accepted  him  in  the  stead  of  sin- 
ners. Lay  the  stress  of  your  salvation  on 
that  Redeemer  whom  God  hath  raised  again, 
and  whose  righteousness  God  hath  accepted 
already,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved.  Believe 
in  Jesus,  and  in  Jesus  you  are  righteous. 
Avow  your  faith  in  him  by  the  life  and  lan- 
guage of  discipleship,  and  you  serve  your- 
self heir  to  his  promise  :  "  Him  that  con- 
fesseth  me  before  men,  will  I  confess  before 
my  Father  and  his  holy  angels."  —  "  Sub- 
mit to  the  righteousness  of  God."  Submit 
to  enter  heaven  in  another's  name  and  in 
another's  right.  Submit  to  be  saved  with- 
out doing  any  great  thing  for  yourself,  but 
by  the  great  things  which  Jesus  has  done 
for  you.  The  Lord  has  not  bid  you  do 
some  great  thing,  not  even  sent  you  to  wash 
in  Jordan  seven  times.  Submit  to  wash  in 
a  better  stream  —  once  and  for  ever  in  the 
fountain  opened  —  and  see  if  your  flesh  do 
15 


170  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

not  come  again  like  that  of  a  little  child  ; 
see  if,  believing  in  Jesus,  you  be  not  born 
again,  and  brought  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Submit  to  put  on  the  wedding- 
garment.  The  Holy  Spirit  offers  you  the 
robe  of  Christ's  righteousness.  Submit  to 
put  it  on,  and  condescend,  as  you  pass  in 
to  the  marriage-feast,  to  say  — 

"  Jesus  !  thy  blood  and  righteousness 
My  beauty  are  and  glorious  dress." 


THE   PLANT    OF   RENOWN. 

There  was  a  small  colony  planted  on  a 
creek  of  a  vast  continent.  Their  soil  was 
very  fertile,  but  its  limits  were  somewhat 
narrow.  However,  its  size  and  resources 
were  sufficient  for  the  inhabitants.  We 
said  that  its  limits  were  narrow.  On  the 
landward  side  it  was  enclosed  by  an  amphi- 
theatre of  rocky  mountains,  so  precipitous, 
that  nothing,  save  the  white  clouds  and  the 
dwindling  eagle,  could  pass  over  them  ;  on 
the  other  side,  it  looked  out  on  the  bulging 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  171 

expanse  of  the  immeasurable  main.  At  the 
time  we  speak  of,  a  pestilence  had  broken 
out,  which  made  fearful  havoc  all  through 
the  population.  It  was  a  dreadful  disease, 
before  whose  touch  the  sturdiest  manhood 
crumbled  down,  and  the  brightest  beauty 
withered  away.  It  was  not  long  till  two 
appalling  discoveries  were  made.  First,  it 
was  found  that  no  one  had  escaped  it :  for, 
though  some  exhibited  its  virulence  more 
fearfully  than  others,  the  litde  child  in  the 
cradle  and  the  shepherd  in  the  distant  plain 
were  smitten,  as  well  as  the  grown  people 
in  the  village  streets  ;  and  next,  the  doctors 
declared  that  it  was  beyond  their  skill  — 
they  could  do  nothing  for  it.  Just  at  the 
time  the  plague  was  raging  worst,  a  stran- 
ger appeared  and  told  them  there  was  a  cure. 
He  said  that  there  was  a  plant  which  healed 
this  disorder,  and  he  described  it.  He  men- 
tioned that  it  was  a  lowly  plant,  not  conspic- 
uous nor  very  arresUng  to  the  eye  ;  that  it 
had  a  red  blossom  and  sweet-scented  leaves, 
and  a  bruised-looking  stem,  and  that  it  was 
15* 


172  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

evergreen.  He  told  a  number  of  other  par- 
ticulars regarding  it ;  and,  as  he  could  not 
tarry  longer  at  that  time,  he  left  a  paper  in 
which,  he  said,  they  would  find  a  full  de- 
scription of  it,  and  directions  how  to  find  it. 
The  tidings  diffused  considerable  activity 
through  the  sickly  colony.  A  plant  of  such 
efficacy  deserved  the  most  diligent  search. 
Almost  all  agreed  that  it  must  be  far  away ; 
but  a  discussion  arose  whether  it  lay  beyond 
the  cliffs  or  across  the  sea.  Most  thought 
the  latter :  and  some  set  to  work  and  built 
a  ship,  and,  when  they  had  launched  her, 
they  christened  her  ^^  Ecclesia,^^  and  hoisted 
a  red-cross  flag,  and  sent  round  word  that 
the  fine  ship  Ecclesia  was  about  to  set  sail 
in  search  of  the  famous  plant,  and  all  who 
wished  to  escape  the  plague  were  invited  to 
take  passage  in  this  good  ship.  A  few  oth- 
ers, however,  thought  that  the  ship  was 
going  the  wrong  way,  and  that  they  would 
have  better  success  by  trying  to  get  over 
the  cliffs.  This  was  an  arduous  enterprise  ; 
for  the  precipices  were  beethng  steep  and 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  173 

extremely  high.  A  few  attempts  were  made 
to  cHmb  by  ravines  and  gulleys,  which, 
however,  ended  in  walls  of  glassy  smooth- 
ness ;  and,  after  many  weariful  efforts,  the 
climbers  either  grew  dizzy  and  fell  back,  or 
allowed  themselves  to  slide  down  again  to 
the  crumbHng  debris  at  the  bottom.  But 
others,  more  inventive,"  busied  themselves 
constructing  artificial  wings  and  aerial  en- 
gines of  various  kinds,  imitatio  Christi,  as- 
ceticism, penitential  prayers,  and  such  like  ; 
and  some  of  them  answered  exceedingly 
well  for  a  little,  and  rose  so  high,  that  their 
neighbors  really  thought  they  would  reach 
the  top  ;  but,  after  getting  a  certain  height, 
whether  it  was  owing  to  the  weakness  of 
the  materials,  or  a  powerful  current  which 
they  always  met  at  a  certain  elevation,  and 
which  by  a  sort  of  down-draught  blew  them 
back  from  the  brow  of  the  mountain,  they 
uniformly  found  themselves  again  on  the 
spot  from  which  they  first  ascended.  A 
long  time  had  now  passed  on,  and  multi- 
tudes had  died  of  the  plague,  without  any 


174  PARABLES   ILLUSTRATIVE 

clearer  views  of  the  specific  plant ;  when  a 
poor  sufferer  who  had  already  gone  on  a 
fruitless  expedition  in  the  ship,  and  from 
the  severity  of  his  anguish  was  eager  in  try- 
ing every  scheme,  lay  tossing  on  his  bed. 
He  got  hold  of  a  large  paper-roll  which  lay 
on  a  shelf  beside  him.  It  was  very  dirty, 
and  the  ink  was  faded  ;  but,  to  while  away 
the  time,  he  began  to  unfold  it,  and  found 
from  the  beginning  that  it  was  the  Book  of 
the  Balm  of  Gilead.*  He  at  once  suspect- 
ed that  it  was  the  book  which  the  stranger 
had  left  so  long  ago,  and  wondered  how 
they  had  suffered  it  to  fall  aside  ;  and  he 
had  not  read  far  till  it  told  him  that  if  he 
would  only  read  on,  it  would  put  him  on 
the  way  of  finding  the  Plant  of  Renown. 
It  gave  a  full  description  —  many  particu- 
lars of  which  he  had  never  heard  before  — 
and  as  he  advanced  in  his  feverish  earnest- 
ness, unrolling  it  fold  by  fold,  and  reading 
rapidly  as  he  went  along,  hoping  that  it 
would  tell    him   the   very  spot   where  he 

*  Title  of  New  Testament,  and  Matt.  i.  1. 


OF   SCRIPTURE   DOCTRINE.  175 

should  look  for  it,  he  found  the  plant  itself! 
There  it  lay  in  the  heart  of  the  long-neglect- 
ed volume  ;  and  Luther's  eye  ghstened 
as  he  read,  "  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law 
for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believ- 
eth."  —  *<  But  where  is  Christ  to  be  found  ? 
Must  I  ascend  the  height,  or  descend  into 
the  deep  ?  Must  T  climb  these  cliffs,  or 
cross  that  sea  ?  Oh!  no.  Christ  is  here 
—  nigh  me  —  God's  present  gift  to  me  con- 
veyed in  the  volume  of  this  book.  I  see 
him.  I  accept  him.  I  believe."  From 
that  moment  Christ  was  Luther's  righteous- 
ness ;  and  in  the  flash  of  sudden  joy  with 
which  he  discovered  the  Lord  his  righteous- 
ness, though  it  did  not  so  strike  him  at  the 
moment,  Luther's  eternal  life  began. 

The  apologue  has  prematurely  betrayed 
itself ;  but  no  matter  :  it  is  so  historically 
true,  that  it  could  not  be  hid.  The  cure 
for  a  plague-stricken,  dying  world,  was  long 
concealed  in  the  Bible,  till,  led  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  Luther  found  it  there.  You  have 
only  to  go  where  Luther  went,  and  you 


176  PARABLES. 

will  find  it  again.  But  so  inveterate  is  the 
disposition  to  travel  far,  or  do  some  great 
thing  for  the  sake  of  some  surpassing  good, 
that  few  are  content  with  a  salvation  which 
has  already  come  to  their  house.  Leaving 
their  bible  behind  them,  they  go  to  sea  in 
the  ship  of  a  so-called  apostolic  church,  or 
they  make  to  themselves  the  wings  of  a 
mystic  piety,  and,  by  dint  oi personal  effort, 
try  to  bring  Christ  down  from  above.  But 
all  their  labor  is  futile.  That  only  "  Christ" 
who  is  the  "  end  of  the  law"  and  the  "  sin- 
ner's righteousness,"  is  in  the  Bible  already, 
and  as  such,  is  God's  free  gift  to  me  —  a 
gift  unspeakable  in  its  intrinsic  value  —  un- 
speakable in  the  everlasting  results  which 
its  acceptance  involves  —  Godlike  in  the 
freeness  with  which  it  is  offered,  and  God- 
like in  the  nearness  with  which  it  is  brought ; 
but  missed  by  many  because  so  nigh,  and 
rejected  by  others  because  so  free. 


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